Police: Starlight murder suspect tossed $10K during chase

The Starlight Drive-In homicide suspect shot a man who interrupted him in an intimate moment with his girlfriend and then threw nearly $10,000 cash out of his truck as police chased him, investigators said Tuesday.

Quentric Shaymond Williams shot Mitt Lenix when the victim interrupted the couple, police said at the suspect's probable cause hearing in DeKalb County Magistrate Court.

A DeKalb police detective who was working an off-duty job at the drive-in the night of the shooting testified that Williams, a convicted felon, was carrying at least $20,000 in cash and at least two handguns at the time.

Williams allegedly led police on a high-speed chase from the theater, on the south end of Moreland Avenue, to Gwinnett County before wrecking the rented pick-up he was driving and fleeing on foot, leaving his girlfriend in the truck. Days later, police arrested him at a Gwinnett hotel.

DeKalb police Detective Ricardo Harris testified Tuesday that Williams' girlfriend Angel Thomas told investigators “that they were watching a movie, and the movie was boring, so they were going to have sex. Then, Quentric said somebody was coming.”

The battery had died in the car Lenix and his own girlfriend were in, authorities said, so Lenix went for help. As he approached the pick-up, Thomas told police, Williams “reached and got a gun from somewhere” and fired once out of the driver's-side window, Harris said.

A witness told police that she heard one shot and saw Lenix fall to the ground, and then she saw Williams’ truck speed off.

Williams and Thomas dressed as the man drove away from the theater and police chased them, assisted by a witness who called 911 and followed the suspect's truck, Harris said.

Thomas told police that Williams gave her $9,880 in cash and threw another bundle of cash – nearly $10,000 – out the window as police pursued them.

Police did not say why Williams had the cash or why he tried to dispose of it.

The 28-year-old Williams has served two state prison terms for drug convictions, according to prison records.

After crashing the truck, Williams ran away, leaving one weapon, a 9 mm handgun with one spent bullet, in the vehicle and discarding another handgun in a yard he ran through.

The suspect hurt his hand in the wreck and through a mutual friend contacted an acquaintance, now a firefighter, who he had known in high school, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Investigators said Williams sent a text message with a photograph of his injury to the firefighter, asking him how to “fix this.” Seeing that Williams had lost a lot of blood, the firefighter advised him to go to a hospital. He also asked how Williams hurt himself.

Williams first told the firefighter he’d had an ATV accident, but relented when the man pressed him. "Quentric proceeded to tell him, ‘I was running from the police,'" Harris said. The detective did not say if the firefighter contacted authorities at that point.

Williams went to an urgent care clinic and was arrested the next day at a Sun Suites hotel near Duluth, where police said they found a third gun and large amount of cash and drugs.

Another man, Clinton Hightower, was killed as he walked across Memorial Drive and was struck by DeKalb Police Officer Jason Cooper, as Cooper rushed to join the chase.