Detective recalls how robbery led to slaying

The manager of a Riverdale video store that fronted an illegal gambling operation was shot in the neck after picking up his own gun in self-defense during a brazen Sunday afternoon robbery, a police detective testified Tuesday morning.

Riverdale police Detective Michael Tarrant testified during a preliminary hearing Tuesday that accused triggerman Gary “The General” Kilgore shot Souphoth Thammavongsa when Thammavongsa reached for his own gun during the Oct. 19 robbery of Thai Video.

“Then he moved the body, he robbed the body and picked the victim off the floor to show the other people who were there,” Tarrant testified. “He told them, ‘You see what we did to this [profanity deleted]? You’re next. Where’s the money?’”

Under direct examination by Clayton County Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Boulware, Tarrant said a boot-clad Kilgore walked through Thammavongsa’s blood and stepped on the back of a man lying facedown on the floor, leaving a bloody print on the man’s shirt.

After Kilgore and co-defendants Dexter “Buck” Armstrong, 39, and Jessie Ben “Fleetwood” Mathis, 33, robbed patrons of money and cellphones, they walked out the front door and to a waiting car, Tarrant testified.

The men face murder, aggravated assault and armed robbery charges. They are being held without bond in the Clayton County Jail.

Clayton Magistrate Bobby Simmons bound the case over after the hearing for grand jury presentation.

Tarrant testified that Armstrong and Mathis were among the gamblers in the back of the video store when Kilgore burst in yelling, “ATF, ATF, get down, get down.”

Most of the estimated 20 gamblers fled the store, in the 6400 block of Ga. 85, after the three left, Tarrant said, leaving three witnesses to help with the investigation.