DeKalb County police have made an arrest in a fatal shooting early Sunday in a hotel near the Mall at Stonecrest.
Tito Ivey, 35, was arrested on a murder charge in connection with the death of 32-year-old Franklin Jones, DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said Monday morning in an email. Ivey is in DeKalb County jail.
Jones was shot about 3 a.m. Sunday, hours after he was seen behaving erratically at the pool of the Hyatt Place Atlanta-East/Lithonia hotel on Mall Ring Road, police said.
The shooting happened on the top floor of the five-story building.
Ivey told police he shot Jones because he thought he was going to be robbed.
“But detectives investigating the case found no evidence to substantiate Ivey’s claim,” Parish told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There (were) no signs of a struggle (and) Jones was not armed …”
Jones had a room that the hotel staff provided him, Parish said. It was located on the same floor as Ivey’s room, a few doors away.
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