During his first court appearance Friday, a man accused in separate shootings in two metro Atlanta counties sat with his head down.
A Henry County Magistrate Court judge read 26-year-old Karl Anthony Jordan his charges, which include aggravated assault, aggravated battery, armed robbery, theft by taking, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. He told him he has no bond because that matter must be decided at a later date by a Superior Court judge.
The hearing occurred less than 24 hours after a frantic search for Jordan came to end Thursday morning. U.S. marshals and police captured him after they say he shot three people in Clayton County, including a 4-year-old boy, and then robbed a Henry County Waffle House, shot a woman in the head and took off in her car.
His charges in Clayton County were announced Friday afternoon: malice murder, three counts of aggravated assault, first-degree cruelty to children, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.
Jordan had just been released from prison earlier this year, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. Records show he was sentenced following a 2018 conviction in Henry County on multiple drug possession charges and later granted parole. He walked out of Coastal State Prison on Jan. 27 — more than a year ahead of his scheduled April 24, 2021, release, according to online records.
Investigators said Jordan robbed the Waffle House along Ga. 155 near McDonough early Thursday morning before shooting the woman. Details on the victim’s condition have not been provided. According to Channel 2 Action News, the woman works at the restaurant.
The Clayton sheriff’s office said Jordan abandoned a silver 2009 Acura at the Waffle House and left the scene in the victim’s 2011 Dodge Avenger. U.S. marshals and Clayton police found him on Highland Boulevard in Stockbridge, Clayton police spokesman Darnell Brown said.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC
Credit: JOHN SPINK / AJC
The search for Jordan started about 10:15 p.m. Wednesday when Clayton Sheriff Victor Hill named him as a suspect in a shooting that injured a 4-year-old and two women.
Shortly before 9 p.m., officers were called to Glynn Court, near Hampton, after shots were fired, Clayton police spokeswoman Lt. Cherie West said in a statement.
According to Clayton County police, a grandmother was sitting on the porch when she heard a loud noise from inside the house. She found her daughter lying on the bedroom floor with what appeared to be a gunshot wound, police said. When the grandmother picked up her 4-year-old grandson to leave the house, Jordan shot both victims “from behind,” authorities said.
The grandmother, identified by Channel 2 as Stacy Ahmed, was eventually able to escape and go to a neighbor’s home with the boy, Clayton police said during a news conference Thursday.
Ahmed, the boy and Ahmed’s daughter, 19-year-old Shyanne Harvey, were taken to a hospital, where Harvey died from her injuries, authorities confirmed. Ahmed and the child were expected to survive.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Clayton police said that at one point Jordan was in a relationship with Harvey. Her stepfather, Joshua East, told Channel 2: “The man’s an animal. Sickening.”
Jordan has a preliminary hearing scheduled in Henry for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 23, court officials told AJC.com.
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