Arrest made in DeKalb gas station killing

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Police have charged an Augusta jail inmate with shooting an Atlanta college student outside a DeKalb County gas station.

Police have obtained a murder warrant for Joseph Thomas, 23, DeKalb Police Officer Jason Gagnon said Tuesday.

Police say Thomas shot Westwood College student Greggory Savelio Aug. 22 in the parking lot of the Chevron gas station at 2450 Candler Road. Thomas has been charged with murder and other charges in the shooting.

Savelio, 22, was on his way to work and had stopped at the gas station shortly before 6 p.m. He was in the parking lot when gunfire erupted, Gagnon said.

Police searched the area, but could not find a shooter. The gas station did not have a video surveillance system, police said.

Last week, police received an anonymous tip that Thomas was involved and tracked him to the Richmond County jail.

Thomas is being held in Augusta on unrelated murder charges, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office said. In addition to the DeKalb warrant, he also has another warrant in Gwinnett County.

Thomas will be transferred to DeKalb after his trial in Richmond County.

Reached Tuesday night, the victim's mother, Frances Grigsby, said she is relieved about the arrest, but unable to get excited.

"I'm afraid to be excited," she said.

Grigsby said she doesn't know the suspect and still has no idea what happened.

No witnesses have come forward and there is no video surveillance to show the confrontation, she said.

"I couldn't fathom the thought why they didn't have cameras on site. I just want to know what his last steps were, where he was standing when he got shot," the mother said. "Everyone at the gas station was saying they didn’t see anything, didn’t know anything. "

The mother and her family will be in Atlanta next week as part of a push for legislation requiring gas stations to have security cameras. The family will be presenting a petition to lawmakers, Grigsby said.

"If they had cameras on site they we would have not waited three months. I hate the thought that some other family has to go through the same thing," she said. "The worst happened to me and my family. I don’t want this pain to happen to anybody else."

Savelio was studying business marketing at Westwood College while working full-time. He was scheduled to graduate in 2010.

Savelio was born in Las Vegas and grew up in Pekin, Ill. He attended Westwood College in Chicago, but decided to transfer to the Atlanta campus two years ago so he could be closer to his father who lives in the area, his mother said.