Exactly one year after kidnapping his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint, the same man walked into a Fayetteville Wingstop restaurant, where the woman worked, and kidnapped her again Sunday, according to authorities. This time, police said he followed through on his promise to kill her.
In the harrowing moments that followed the second alleged kidnapping, police chased 20-year-old Cameron Ja’Michael Hopkins to the parking lot of Lovejoy High School, where they say he shot and killed 19-year-old Khaliyah Jones. Hopkins faces a slew of charges, including murder and kidnapping.
Fayetteville police said they received several calls around 11 p.m. reporting the kidnapping from the North Glynn Street fast-food restaurant. One of the callers told dispatchers that Hopkins, of Albany, had left in a red Chevrolet Camaro. Officers spotted the vehicle on their way to the restaurant and began following it.
The driver sped up and a pursuit ensued in the area of Banks Road and continued onto McDonough Road in Clayton County, police said. The vehicle eventually turned into the driveway of the high school, where officers conducted a PIT maneuver to disable it.
At that point, several shots were fired inside the vehicle and additional shots were fired at officers, police said. No officers were struck, but several patrol vehicles took gunfire with officers still inside.
Police took cover and began ordering the suspect to come out, but he refused until deputies with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office arrived and deployed an irritant into the car, officials said. Hopkins then got out and was taken into custody.
Jones was still inside the vehicle with several gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead shortly after.
Hopkins was free on a $162,000 bond in last year’s kidnapping, during which 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.
In that case, shoppers at the Lovejoy Walmart on Tara Boulevard called 911 to report a kidnapping. The witnesses told police they saw a man walk up to a vehicle with a gun, break the window and drag a woman out before forcing her into his vehicle.
Lovejoy officers confirmed Hopkins was the suspect and they, along with his family, began trying to reach him by phone. It was during those calls that he said he would kill Jones, police said.
At some point, Hopkins ditched his car and got help from 33-year-old Demarco Jennings, who picked up Hopkins and “forced the victim into the back of the vehicle,” police said. Hopkins and Jennings continued driving toward Albany but made a stop in the Macon area. That is when Jones bolted out of the back seat and ran to a nearby business to call for help, police said. She was eventually able to return to her family.
Hopkins and Jennings were later arrested in Albany. Jennings was charged with kidnapping and Hopkins with terroristic threats, aggravated assault, second-degree criminal damage to property and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime. Now, he faces two more counts of aggravated assault and another illegal possession of a firearm charge in addition to the murder and kidnapping charges.
No other details about Sunday’s incident have been released by police.
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