A man was arrested Saturday in connection with a fatal shooting during a robbery attempt at a DeKalb County gas station, police said.
Jason Linear was taken into custody “without incident” after DeKalb police executed a search warrant at a Glenwood Road location, where four guns were also seized, police said. Linear was charged with malice murder and is being held at the DeKalb County Jail without bond.
His arrest stems from an Oct. 11 incident in which he shot and killed Christin Harris, 32, of Atlanta, during an attempted robbery at an Exxon gas station on Columbia Drive around 8 p.m., police said. Before the shooting, Harris was standing in line inside the store when Linear entered and reached for Harris’ handgun that was on his right hip, according to an incident report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Harris turned around and pushed Linear away before Linear, with his own gun, shot Harris, the report states.
Linear fled the scene after the shooting, the report states. Harris’ gun was stolen by another man who “pretended to be assisting” by rendering him aid, according to the report.
A friend of Harris’ who created a petition to close the store wrote that Harris was a “loving father, son, brother, uncle, cousin and friend.” The petition has garnered more than 1,300 signatures.
“Everyone should have the right to a safe environment to be a consumer without being at risk for such violence. There has been too many incidents at this place of business & no one is taking extreme measures to reduce the crime rate in this area. My condolences to the family & may we bring justice to another young man that lost his life to senseless violence,” one comment states.
In April 2019, DeKalb police were called to the gas station around 1 p.m. after receiving calls about a shooting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The victim, who had non-life-threatening injuries, was found at a neighboring apartment complex, police said at the time.
In February 2019, the parents of two children told DeKalb police that a man and woman tried to grab their kids at the same Exxon station, the AJC reported. One parent said the children were hanging out there when the man and woman in a green Honda Civic approached them. Channel 2 Action News reported that the two offered the children drugs and money, but when that didn’t work, they tried to grab one of them, but they ran away. The parents called police after one child said what happened.
Right behind the gas station at an apartment complex, 36-year-old Christopher Copeland was shot and killed in September. Aqontise Phanique Glenn, 31, was arrested by U.S. marshals and local police in Calhoun County, Alabama, and charged with murder.
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