The suspect is 24-year-old Royheem Delshawn Deeds.
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A man accused of fatally shooting a Georgia police officer has been arrested in Florida.
CBS Macon, Georgia affiliate WMAZ-TV cites the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in reporting Deeds was arrested in Nassau County, Florida early Sunday morning. A deputy saw a vehicle that matched the description of the suspect’s vehicle, and with another deputy, made a traffic stop. Also in the vehicle were Deeds’ Franshawn Deeds, 22, and Jamil Mitchell, 32, her boyfriend. Deeds was arrested Hilliard a traffic stop after a deputy spotted a suspicious auto, and after searching it found Deeds in the trunk and took him into custody.
Officer Tim Smith, 30, was shot over the weekend while investigating a suspicious person call near the intersection of Smith and Main streets in Eastman, Georgia. Deeds shot Smith once and the officer returned fire, according to police.
Deeds’ sister and Mitchell were charged with hindering the apprehension of a fugitive, Leeper said.
Smith leaves behind three children, a stepson and a fiancée (Chelsea Clark, right).
The arrest was the result of a tip received by the GBI and the U.S. Marshals Service and sent to Florida authorities.
Meanwhile, an aunt of Deeds’ described him as “a good person” and said his arrest was “a plum shock”.
Smith’s father, Lewis Smith, is employed with Glenwood police in Wheeler County, which is less than an hour from where the shooting took place, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that officer Smith “was not wearing a protective vest”. He is charged with murder in the Saturday shooting of 30-year-old Eastman Patrol Officer Tim Smith.
The GBI said Smith was fatally shot in a residential area about three blocks south of City Hall and the police department.
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Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
