A teenager is behind bars more than five months after police in Gwinnett County said he fled from a shoplifting investigation at a Suwanee Walmart, ultimately causing a crash that killed a man.
The U.S. Marshals Service collaborated with the Gwinnett sheriff’s office to take 18-year-old Keytavuis Arice Lowman into custody Wednesday, the agency said in a statement.
Lowman was the second and final suspect sought by police in connection with the Nov. 7 death of 42-year-old Christian Gutierrez. The other suspect, 15-year-old Jafar Hunter Jr., has been in jail since turning himself in to the sheriff’s office Nov. 18.
Gutierrez, a father of two, was Christmas shopping with his family at the Walmart on Lawrenceville Suwanee Road on the night of his death, authorities said. He was hit by a speeding U-Haul van in the parking lot and dragged about 100 yards onto Satellite Boulevard.
He was dead when emergency responders arrived shortly after 9 p.m.
Investigators determined the teens were trying to get away in the U-Haul van after shoplifting electronics, according to Suwanee police spokesman Lt. Robert Thompson.
Shoppers told police they saw the duo fill two carts before walking past the cash registers toward the door. When a loss prevention officer confronted them, police said they ditched the merchandise, ran into the parking lot and drove away.
Hunter and Lowman were identified from surveillance photos, according to police. Both live in the Decatur area and were known to sell bottled water in the area of Memorial and Columbia drives.
The van was later located and processed for evidence, but police have not said where the vehicle was found or which teen was driving it on the night of Gutierrez’s death.
Hunter surrendered at the Gwinnett jail and is being held at a juvenile detention center on felony charges of murder and shoplifting. Lowman was booked into the Gwinnett jail on charges of felony murder, theft by shoplifting and burglary.
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