How ammo and an ID linked suspect to Macon triple homicide. Are other cases linked?
Officers found evidence that linked a suspect to at least one of three people who was allegedly shot and killed in October in Macon, according to law enforcement records provided to The Telegraph.
The shooting that left three people dead including a teenager on Oct. 18, on Williams Street East, led to the arrest of Shakeymia Shatayla Henley, 21, who turned herself in and was charged with three counts of murder, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said.
Henley’s wallet and driver’s license were found in the vehicle that was used to drive Quantayrias De’Monte Townsend, one of the victims, from the shooting to a local hospital where he died, according to records from the sheriff’s office, provided to The Telegraph by the District Attorney’s Office for the Macon Judicial Circuit.
Investigators found a round of ammunition under the driver’s seat and a misfired round in the driver’s side door, the sheriff’s office’s report said. A misfired round is a cartridge of bullets that fails to fire, according to the National Rifle Association.
More than half of the bullet shell casings left at the scene of the shooting were the same kind as the ammunition in the car, according to The Telegraph’s analysis of incident and detail reports, which described evidence and deputies’ accounts of the shooting.
Blood was found on two rifles involved in the case, but investigators did not identify whose blood it was by Oct. 28, when the report was filed.
The woman who dropped Townsend off at the hospital was unnamed in previous investigation records provided to The Telegraph. Deputy Alexis Mitchell-White referred The Telegraph to Henley’s arrest warrant for more information about her involvement, but the sheriff’s office and Bibb County Magistrate Court denied The Telegraph’s requests for Henley’s warrant.
When a woman dropped Townsend off at a hospital, security guards took two rifles away from her car, then she fled, an incident report said.
The vehicle was later found at Quick Zip gas station at 1800 Pio Nono Avenue, records show.
Henley eventually turned herself into the sheriff’s office after being named a person of interest, and was booked in the Bibb County Jail without bond on Oct. 27, deputies said.
Townsend, 16-year-old Markell Bonner Jr., and 21-year-old Brandon Devonta Thomas were killed in the shooting, the Bibb County Coroner’s Office said.
The detail and incident report regarding the shooting did not mention Thomas or Bonner.
Connection to other cases
There was “high-confidence” that at least one gun in this shooting was used in previous incidents, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in the sheriff’s office’s report.
“The potential that the same firearm was involved in the cases … is significant,” the records said, and investigators recommended further investigation.