With a fully loaded revolver and a box of bullets in his possession, Aeman Presley, charged in the fatal shootings of four metro Atlantans, seemed positioned to kill again.
And he might have, police said at a press conference Tuesday, if not for a careless attempt to avoid fare at a downtown MARTA station. Transit police apprehended the 34-year-old Stone Mountain High School graduate and, within hours, investigators were able to solve several cases not thought to have been linked beforehand.
“He initially targeted homeless individuals, and it escalated,” Atlanta Police Capt. Paul Guerrucci told reporters.
Police say Presley’s murderous rampage began Sept. 27 when he repeatedly shot Calvin Gholston, a 53-year-old schizophrenic mistaken assumed to be homeless, in a breezeway at the Spring Mill Village shopping center on Memorial Drive in unincorporated Decatur. DeKalb County Police Major Cornelius Yarbro said his investigators had “exhausted all leads” in their search for Gholston’s killer until they were notified of Presley’s arrest.
Detectives told Cedric Gholston his brother’s death was premeditated, that the killer had learned when nearby stores closed.
“When he did it, he felt joy,” Cedric Gholston, quoting police, told Channel 2 Action News.
It would be almost two months before Presley, who by this time had found himself homeless, is alleged to have killed again. Police say he repeatedly shot a sleeping Dorian Jenkins, who was homeless, on Nov. 23. Three days later, he pumped seven bullets into the body of another homeless man, 68-year-old Tommy Mims. Like Jenkins, Mims, was asleep at the time.
His killing was particularly brutal. Police say Presley shot Mims five times, reloaded his revolver and shot him again — seven times in all, police said.
It didn’t take long for Atlanta police detectives to link the deaths of Mims and Jenkins, as each were shot with elongated .45-caliber bullets last manufactured in 2010.
“There were very alarming similarities in the two cases that were too similar to ignore,” Guerrucci said.
But police still had no idea the person they were looking for was involved in two other fatal shootings.
And there was no reason to think the Dec. 6 shooting of Smyrna hairstylist Karen Pearce was connected. She shared no traits with the other victims, each of whom were African-American men who were either homeless or assumed to be. Decatur police initially believed Pearce was a robbery victim.
After he was arrested, Presley confessed to killing the 44-year-old woman, who he confronted as she walked to her car following a night out with friends.
Presley was “visibly nervous” after he was detained by officers Thursday, MARTA Police Chief Wanda Dunham said. A search of his backpack turned up a silver Taurus .45 Colt revolver, fully loaded with five hollow point rounds, and a box containing 27 additional rounds.
A weapons expert with the transit agency recognized the box of ammunition from media reports detailing the search for the killer of Jenkins and Mims, Dunham said. MARTA contacted Atlanta Police Detective David Quinn, who subsequently interviewed Presley.
Their discussion was more akin to a conversation than an interrogation, Quinn said Thursday.
“He was very forthcoming,” Atlanta Police Chief George Turner
By the time he was done, police said, they had enough evidence to charge him with all four murders.
What prompted Presley to indiscriminately kill remains unclear, Turner said.
“What his mindset was at the time of the arrest I can’t say,” the chief said.
Presley, a father of two, is being held without bond in Fulton County Jail awaiting a scheduled Dec. 26 court appearance.
About the Author
