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The Atlanta Police Department made an arrest on Monday in the death of off-duty Fulton County Deputy James Thomas in the early morning of Dec. 29.
Alton DeShawn Oliver, 26, was in custody at the Cobb County Detention Center after being arrested near his place of work, the APD announced in a news conference this morning.
APD Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr. said Oliver was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
“We spent hours of canvassing and looking for additional information but also it shows the work of citizens the 911 caller, some truck drivers that had dashcam videos and just the technology that the city of Atlanta has to lead to investigations and success like this,” Hampton, who heads the APD’s Criminal Investigation Division, said.
The suspect was on foot and some type of argument escalated to gunfire, Hampton said. The crash of Thomas’s vehicle apparently happened after he was shot.
No prior relationship is known between the two men, he said.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said the Connect Atlanta camera network was instrumental in helping bring this individual to justice and encouraged businesses and residents to sign up for it at connectatlanta.org.
“These great citizens, these truck drivers they helped us with the dashcam, and also the other individuals who were able to utilize the camera network to bring this individual to justice,” he said.
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat concurred with the mayor’s comment that the endless gun violence needs to stop.
“Early last Thursday morning. I had an unenviable task of reaching out to a mother and reaching out to a family, reaching out to a work family to inform them of the loss of Fulton County Deputy James Thomas,” he said.
He thanked the community for the hundreds of texts, emails, prayers as well as phone calls.
“As you can imagine, we are grieving with the family. But we also wrapping our arms around the family and love and supporting them,” Labat said.
He said the family needs time to heal and asked that they are given the grace and space to do so.
The sheriff said a moment of remembrance will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, at the Fulton County Government Center in Assembly Hall.
A GoFundMe account has been created to help with funeral expenses.
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