A man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend after kidnapping her from her job last month waived his preliminary hearing Wednesday morning.
Cameron Ja’Michael Hopkins, 20, walked into a Fayetteville Wingstop restaurant July 16 and forced 19-year-old Khaliyah Jones into his car at gunpoint, police said at the time. He then led officers on a pursuit into Clayton County, where they said he shot and killed Jones in the parking lot of Lovejoy High School.
It was exactly one year after he allegedly kidnapped her from a Walmart, also at gunpoint.
Hopkins’ attorney, Steven Frey, confirmed Wednesday afternoon that his client waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
“That was a decision we made,” Frey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “That was a decision between me and him.”
During such a hearing, the judge would determine if there is enough evidence to allow the case to move forward. Hopkins faces several charges, including malice murder and kidnapping.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
The former couple had a tumultuous relationship, and Jones’ mother, Bridgette, told Channel 2 Action News that Hopkins had repeatedly threatened her daughter and the family. She said she had begged Jones to cut ties with Hopkins, especially after last year’s alleged kidnapping when he “expressed his rage over the relationship ending and threatened to shoot and kill Ms. Jones if the police attempted to pull him over,” authorities said at the time.
Hopkins had been out of jail on a $162,000 bond in that case.
“I said, Khaliyah, loving him is going to kill you,” Bridgette Jones told Channel 2. “And here we are a year later, and my baby dead.”
Her boss at the Wingstop restaurant told police that Jones said the couple had been having problems, according to a videotaped interview released to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the arrest. Jones told her boss that Hopkins had taken out a loan in her name.
Later, Khaliyah Jones pulled her boss aside and whispered, “Remember my ex-boyfriend I was telling you about? He just came in (the restaurant).”
“I was like, ‘Where is he?’ ‘Cause I wanted to make sure she — she looked frightened,” the woman told police, adding that Hopkins then started looking for Khaliyah Jones and pushed his way past the manager and other employees into the kitchen area to get to her.
“She started screaming, ‘He got a gun! He got a gun!’ And I heard him cock the gun, grab her arm and walked her out with the gun at her side,” the woman told officers.
Other witnesses, who had stopped by the restaurant to pick up food just as the events unfolded, recounted the same events to police. They said they watched Hopkins “march (Jones) right over to the car,” a red Chevrolet Camaro, and put her inside.
“She was protesting, but, you know, he had a weapon, so there wasn’t a lot she was going to do,” one man said.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Officers located Hopkins’ vehicle within minutes, and after a 7-mile pursuit, they disabled it with a PIT maneuver as he turned into the high school parking lot.
Seconds later, dash camera footage shows the passenger-side window being lowered and what appears to be a hand grabbing the window frame as multiple shots are fired inside the vehicle. Immediately after, four shots are fired in the direction of officers, shattering the driver’s-side window.
No officers were struck. After taking cover, they began ordering Hopkins out of the car. He refused until an irritant was deployed, forcing him out.
Jones suffered several gunshot wounds and was unresponsive inside the car, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the back of a patrol vehicle, Hopkins told police that Jones shot herself and asked, “Where is she?”
“She’s in the car where you left her,” an officer replied.
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