An arrest has been made in connection with a triple shooting in South Fulton that left two teens dead, and police say the suspect also is connected to burglaries involving Fulton County Schools.
Adrian Chappell, 18, is charged with two counts of murder, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rob and one count of aggravated battery in the shooting deaths of Tyree Johnson and Grant Antonio Payton, according to Fulton County jail records.
Johnson, 19, of College Park, and Payton, 16, of Riverdale, were killed just before 1 a.m. May 29 after making a food run to a fast-food spot in the city. An unidentified 15-year-old boy survived the shooting in the 2900 block of Two Lakes Circle.
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“Detectives worked around the clock to solve this homicide,” police Chief Keith Meadows said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “This closure brings us one step closer to becoming a safer city.”
The double homicide occurred just days after the end of the 2017-2018 school year and was one of a series of shootings that claimed the lives of promising black teens.
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Payton had just started his first job at Chick-fil-A.
“My son wasn’t a bad kid,” Frank Payton, Grant’s father, told AJC.com. “He wasn’t out doing anything bad.”
In addition to the other charges, Chappell was arrested on a second-degree burglary charge from Fulton County Schools police. Montavious Powell and an unidentified 16-year-old also were charged in connection with the burglaries, police said in the emailed statement. Details about the school burglaries were not released.
According to police, the trio was captured about 8 p.m. Monday at a home in the Three Lakes Subdivision.
Bond was denied for Chappell and Powell was given $15,000 bond, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. Both are in the Fulton County Jail. The juvenile is in the Atlanta Regional Youth Detention Center.