Crime

Macon man arrested for 2022 Walmart parking lot shooting, police say

This image released by the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office shows an aggravated assault suspect and victim Ronnie Albea, 41, who was fatally shot in a Walmart parking lot Friday evening in Macon.
This image released by the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office shows an aggravated assault suspect and victim Ronnie Albea, 41, who was fatally shot in a Walmart parking lot Friday evening in Macon. Courtesy photo

Police arrested a Macon man and charged him with murder Tuesday in connection with a shooting last summer during a robbery in a Walmart parking lot, officials said.

Elijiah Dwayne Gray, 18, was arrested just before 11 a.m. , Tuesday, by Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies and the U.S. Marshals Regional Southeast Fugitive Task Force, according to a statement from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office. He was taken into custody at a house on Clisby Place near Vineville Avenue and Miller Middle School.

Authorities linked Gray to the shooting that killed Ronnie Albea, 41, on Aug. 5 when Albea tried to defend himself during a robbery in the parking lot of Walmart on Harrison Road in west Macon near Eisenhower Parkway.

Two men assault 41-year-old Ronnie Albea in the parking lot of a Macon Walmart Friday evening. Albea was shot in the altercation and later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Two men assault 41-year-old Ronnie Albea in the parking lot of a Macon Walmart Friday evening. Albea was shot in the altercation and later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Courtesy image

Albea pulled a knife when two men tried to steal his fiance’s car keys, according to Telegraph archives. One of the men fatally shot Albea before the two fled the scene.

The shooting left the Macon community shocked, as the two men were not identified after the shooting and seemingly escaped when they drove away from the scene. One of the men picked up the spent shell casings from the shots that killed Albea before fleeing, a police report said, further limiting evidence at the scene.

Now the sheriff’s office has Gray in custody, though it was unclear in the statement how investigators connected him to the shooting. Police are also holding Gray for charges of terroristic threats from a separate case. He was being held without bond.

No information was provided about the second suspect.

This story was originally published April 26, 2023 at 11:03 AM.

MJ
Micah Johnston
The Telegraph
Micah Johnston is a general assignment reporter for the Macon Telegraph. A Macon native and Mercer University graduate, he joined The Telegraph in 2022. When he’s not writing about anything under the sun, you can find him obsessively following baseball, reading or playing drums.
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