Police have arrested one teenager and are searching for another in connection with the death of an Atlanta grandmother shot and killed while driving home from her job at a center for homeless mothers.
Adarius Jones, 18, was arrested Wednesday and faces murder charges in the Aug. 12 shooting of Beverly Jenkins, Atlanta police said. A second suspect, 18-year-old Khalid Bays, is also wanted for murder but remains at large.
Jenkins, 49, was shot in the head near the intersection of Westview Drive and Hopkins Street in southwest Atlanta.
The mother of five and grandmother of four was driving home about 12:30 a.m. after working her shift at the City of Refuge, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless mothers and their families get back on their feet.
Police had previously asked for the public’s help to identify four persons of interest who were seen on surveillance video walking nearby where Jenkins was fatally shot.
In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. Michael O'Connor said they have identified all four persons of interest. Bays and Jones were among the four, and police have spoken to the other two but haven't released their names. Those two are not in custody, O'Connor said.
He also said they found a shell casing at the scene, and it matched two shell casings found during a carjacking Monday on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.
Officers spotted that stolen vehicle Tuesday. The driver attempted to speed away but wrecked at Mattox Park on the basketball court, O’Connor said.
One suspect was taken into custody, O’Connor said, but the other got away after running onto the MARTA tracks near the Bankhead station, causing service to be briefly suspended.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Stephanie Brown told AJC.com the person taken into custody was released without charges.
O’Connor didn’t identify either of the two suspects in that incident or didn’t say if Bays and Jones were the other two persons of interest seen in the surveillance video.
Bays is considered armed and dangerous, according to police. He’s believed to have changed his hairstyle, O’Connor said.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact authorities.
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