Police said Royheem Deeds, 24, who is suspected of fatally shooting a police officer in Georgia Saturday night, was found early Monday morning hiding in his sister’s auto in Florida.
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The officer was shot once as he got out of his patrol auto, and returned fire as Deeds fled the scene, according to a statement.
The suspect’s aunt, Annie Lee Harris, said the charges against her nephew are ‘a plum shock’.
Smith’s death came just hours before two 15-year-old suspects were arrested after exchanging gunfire with officers in the suburban Atlanta city of Marietta.
It has since emerged that the slain officer was not wearing body armor at the time.
Harris said her family felt deeply sorry for the slain officer’s loved ones.
Meanwhile, Smith’s father says his son was a “country boy with a badge” who never mistreated anyone.
The slain officer’s father, Lewis Deeds, said the family planned to hold his funeral Thursday.
He leaves behind two sons, a daughter, stepson, and his fiancee.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman Scott Dutton said Monday that a citizen of Eastman called 911 to report a suspicious person armed with a gun.
“After the driver and passenger were detained, a search of the vehicle was conducted and revealed that Royheem Deeds, 24, was hiding in the trunk of the vehicle”.
A central Georgia man accused of killing a police officer Saturday night was returned to Georgia on Monday after being arrested in Nassau County early Monday morning.
Eastman Police Chief Becky Sheffield told WSB-TV that Smith was not wearing his department-issued bulletproof vest.
Deputies in Florida arrested Deeds during a traffic stop at around 1am on Monday.
Nassau County deputies pulled over a auto matching that description about 1 a.m. Monday in Hilliard on US 1 at County Road 108.
Smith, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, had been with the department for five and a half years. Smith would have turned 31 on Monday, she said. A deputy spotted the auto early Monday and stopped it.
Deeds fled the scene and Smith was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Authorities say Deeds killed Eastman Patrol Officer Tim Smith about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, in a residential area of that city, which is about 60 miles southeast of Macon, Ga.
On Monday, Florida police arrested two other people found in the vehicle with Deeds: His sister, Franshawn Deeds, 22, and her boyfriend Jamil Mitchell, 32, the GBI said.
He was arrested in Nassau County, Florida, which is nearly a three-hour drive away from Telfair County, Georgia.
The sheriff’s office statement did not provide any additional details on the arrest, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether Deeds has an attorney.
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Smith had been with the Eastman Police Department since 2011 and was a father of three.
