Man accused of killing ex arrested at motel week after Hall County shooting
A weeklong search for a man accused of shooting and killing his former girlfriend at a convenience store ended with the suspect’s arrest at a motel nearly 140 miles from the scene.
Tia Keith, 44, was killed at the Subhanallah Food Mart near Gainesville on July 16. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office said her “former live-in boyfriend” shot her multiple times while she was inside her car and then inside the store after she initially managed to escape.
The suspect, later identified by authorities as 45-year-old Antwane Sintell Thurmond, fled the scene in his car before they arrived, officials said.
On Thursday, the department announced Thurmond was arrested at a Motel 6 in the 3000 block of Wrightsboro Road in Augusta by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
Online records from early Friday show Thurmond has since been booked into the Hall County Jail where he is being held without bond on charges of malice and felony murder as well as aggravated assault under the Family Violence Act.
The sheriff’s office did not initially identify Thurmond early in the search for him and said investigators had “viable leads” about his whereabouts. The office publicly released his name on July 19 after they failed to locate him while executing a search warrant at a house in metro Atlanta.
Hall investigators were in Augusta when Thurmond was arrested by the local sheriff’s office, according to a news release. Hall County also said they received assistance from the FBI and GBI, as well as other law enforcement agencies in their pursuit of Thurmond.