Ring camera alert leads to killing at vacant dental office, warrants say

After a Ring camera notified him a man was breaking into his closed dentist office in Atlanta, David Mays grabbed a 9mm pistol, got in his wife’s Ford Taurus and drove more than 20 miles from his home in Fayette County, authorities said.

The 73-year-old didn’t call police immediately after that Saturday alert, according to warrants obtained Tuesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Instead, what authorities say happened next led to a fatal shooting and a murder charge.

Mays told police he arrived at the vacant southwest Atlanta building 25 minutes later to find a broken lock and a figure standing in the waiting area, according to warrants.

Upon opening the door, Mays immediately fired four shots and then a single shot about four seconds later — in a shooting police said was not justified, the records state.

Monterio Spurling, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

After the shooting, Atlanta police said Mays called 911, and officers responded to the site in the 3400 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Mays and his wife own the property, according to Fulton County records.

Mays was originally taken to police headquarters for questioning before being charged the next day with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

He remains in jail Tuesday without bond, according to online records. His attorney, Nicholas Adams, declined to comment.

Mays told police he saw a figure walking in his direction inside the dimly lit entry hallway, according to warrants. He couldn’t tell if the man had anything in his hand and “discharged his firearm out of fear of what the subject might do to him,” the document states.

Mays told police when he opened the door, he didn’t recognize Spurling until seeing him on the floor unresponsive. That’s when he told police he recognized him as a man who had broken into his building several times before. Previously during questioning, he told police that before he left his Tyrone home that day he recognized Spurling in the camera footage, according to warrants.

Authorities said the footage showed Spurling entering the front door of the vacant building at 12:43 p.m. Mays arrived at 2:53 p.m. and opened the door while holding the gun in his hand, the warrant states. Police said the gunfire was then “immediately audible.”

While Mays called 911 after the shooting, he never tried to contact police after seeing the footage of a man breaking into his building or during the drive there, authorities said. During a search of the Taurus, police said investigators found a handbag on the passenger seat that contained several items, including a pistol holster and a cellphone.