A convicted felon suspected of killing his father and his father’s wife in Union County was himself killed early Friday in a shootout with a Cherokee County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.
After allegedly shooting the couple to death Thursday, Anthony Lee Payne left the Blairsville-area home in the couple’s Ford F-150, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.
GBI investigators, working with the Union County Sheriff’s Office, determined Payne, 34, may have been heading to the home of an acquaintance in Cherokee County, about 80 miles away, Bankhead said. That suspicion turned out to be correct.
Cherokee sheriff’s Lt. Jay Baker said that about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, his agency received a GBI lookout “for a suspect in a double homicide in Union County.”
About 40 minutes later, deputies spotted the pickup truck and conducted a traffic stop on Toonigh Road near Morgan Road.
“The suspect was not in the vehicle, however, deputies discovered that the suspect was armed and traveling on foot in the area,” Baker said in an e-mail early Friday.
After receiving information that the suspect was possibly headed to the 700 block of Swan Lane in Canton, deputies were stationed around Swan Lane, Baker said. He said deputies made contact with the suspect just before 1:30 a.m.
“The suspect displayed a weapon and refused to comply with a deputy’s command to drop the weapon,” Baker said. “Both the deputy and the suspect fired their weapons.”
Baker said the suspect, identified as Payne, was shot and died at the scene. The deputy, whose name was not released, was not injured, Baker said.
The string of incidents began Thursday at a Union County home on Nottely Dam Road, investigators said. Payne’s 59-year-old father, Charles Payne, and his father’s wife, 67-year-old Louise Payne, were found dead in the home from apparent gunshot wounds, Bankhead said. A relative of Louise Payne found the Paynes and called police.
Investigators did not release information Friday regarding a motive in the shooting deaths.
Anthony Payne, who according to address records also lived at the Nottely Dam Road home, has an extensive criminal history that includes serving three times in state prison since 1997. Most recently, Payne was incarcerated from June 2011 until October 2012 after being convicted on various theft charges, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Payne had been on parole since his Oct. 23 release, according to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Payne was supposed to have remained on parole until August 2014.
His prior state prison sentences were the result of various burglary, drug and theft convictions, records show.
