A suspect accused of killing a woman and injuring a 79-year-old man in a road rage shooting in Middle Georgia on Tuesday afternoon has died after being shot by deputies at a cemetery later that day, officials said.
At about 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Macon-Bibb County E-911 center got a call about a man and a woman who had been shot in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store on Jeffersonville Road, according to the sheriff’s office. When deputies arrived, they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds inside a Nissan Rogue. The 56-year-old woman, identified as Regina Darlene Smith, died at the scene, while the man was taken to a hospital in critical condition. His name has not been released.
“There was a collision between Ford and Smith near the intersection of Ocmulgee East Boulevard and Jeffersonville Road before the shooting incident occurred,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Sgt. Christopher Williams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This links the shooting to a road rage incident.”
After the gunfire, deputies identified the suspect as 43-year-old Catrell Ford, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter two decades ago and has a lengthy incarceration history, according to online records.
The sheriff’s office said it considered Ford to be “armed and dangerous” and asked for the public’s help in finding him.
Credit: Bibb County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Bibb County Sheriff's Office
Ford was eventually spotted at about 9:45 p.m. at a convenience store at the intersection of Spring Street and Riverside Drive. Once deputies told him to stop, the sheriff’s office said Ford “immediately” ran into the woods toward Rose Hill Cemetery, located on the banks of the Ocmulgee River.
Two deputies caught up to Ford and tried to arrest him at the cemetery, authorities said. But Ford pointed a gun, and one of them shot him just before 10 p.m., according to the GBI.
He was pronounced dead at a Macon hospital. No one else was injured during his apprehension, authorities said.
The incident remains under investigation by the GBI. Once completed, the case file will be given to the Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.
It marked the 51st officer-involved shooting investigated by the GBI this year and the fourth since Friday night. At the same time last year, that number stood at 63.
According to online records, Ford was previously sent to prison in 2001, less than two years after Atlanta police charged him with murder and carjacking related to a fatal shooting on Martin Avenue in 1999. During that incident, police said Ford demanded money and fatally shot 25-year-old John McIntyre, who was a passenger in a 1999 Kia Sportage, the AJC previously reported.
Ford, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, was released in 2014 but had several other stints in prison through 2019, online records show.
— Staff writer Joe Kovac Jr. contributed to this article.
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