A lovers’ quarrel outside a Jonesboro bar turned violent Thursday night when authorities said a 66-year-old man pulled out a gun.
William Lamar Griffin is accused of dragging the woman by her hair from the Sports Cafe on Tara Boulevard after inviting her out to the parking lot so they could talk. They got into an argument, and Griffin allegedly began pulling the woman to his vehicle, according to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office.
"Griffin pistol-whipped the female in the head and shot her in the shoulder area of her body," a sheriff's spokesman said in a public advisory. "After shooting the victim, Griffin began striking her again with the pistol and then fled the scene in his vehicle."
Griffin and the woman “had been involved,” the spokesman said. In surveillance video obtained by the sheriff’s office, she was shown sitting at the bar with her cousin when Griffin approached her about 10 p.m.
After the shooting, the victim’s cousin came outside to check on her “and observed her crawling on the ground for help,” the spokesman said.
The shooter was long gone. Authorities said surveillance video helped them to identify Griffin, and they went looking for him at his home.
His wife answered the door.
She told deputies “that he had left earlier that day and she had no idea where he could be,” the spokesman said.
Griffin was eventually tracked to an undisclosed location in Gwinnett County and he surrendered without incident early Friday morning, according to the sheriff’s office.
He is facing charges of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and battery, online court records show. He was expected to be booked into the Clayton County Jail.
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