ATLANTA (AP) — A man already accused of gunning down two homeless men in their sleep and fatally shooting a hairstylist as she walked to her car now faces charges in the death of a fourth person.
Aeman Lovel Presley, 34, is charged with murder in the Sept. 27 death of Calvin Gholston at a shopping center outside Atlanta, police said Tuesday. Like two of the previous victims, Gholston was homeless, DeKalb County police Major Cornelius Yarbro said.
Last week, police charged Presley in the killing of two homeless men in Atlanta, firing multiple times while the victims were wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the sidewalk. Dorian Jenkins was killed Nov. 23, followed by Tommy Mims on Nov. 26.
Jenkins was shot five times and Mims was shot seven times, and police have described it as “overkill.”
Presley also faces a murder charge in the Dec. 6 death of Karen Pearce, a hairstylist, in Decatur, just outside Atlanta. Police said Pearce was shot as she walked to her car after leaving a downtown restaurant.
No attorney was listed for Presley in online court records Tuesday.
Investigators have said both homeless men were shot with an elongated .45-caliber bullet — often called a “cowboy bullet.” In their investigation, police emphasized the type of bullet used as they asked the public and law enforcement agencies nationwide for help with the seemingly random shootings of the homeless men.
On Thursday, a police officer for MARTA, Atlanta’s transit system, saw Presley pass through a downtown station entry gate without paying the fare. He slipped in behind a paying customer, the officer wrote in an incident report. The officer stopped Presley, who presented his fare card when asked but began to pace nervously, the officer wrote.
Presley failed to follow orders to stand still and put his back against the wall, and the officer arrested him for not paying his fare, according to the report.
Presley was taken to a police staff room for processing, and officers determined there was no money on his fare card. In his bag, they found a silver Taurus .45 Colt revolver fully loaded with five hollow point rounds, according to the report. Also in the bag was an ammunition box with 27 more hollow point rounds.
A day earlier, police had released photos of the bullets and packaging of the ammunition used in the killings of Jenkins and Mims. A MARTA police weapons expert remembered the photos.
By putting out the information on the weapons, “I compromised all of my evidence, knowing that if we could just save one more homeless person” it would be worth it, Atlanta police Detective David Quinn said.
Police declined to give many details from Presley’s interviews with investigators but called him cooperative and forthcoming.
“I wouldn’t even say it was an interrogation,” Quinn said. “It was a conversation. … After the interview, we had enough evidence to charge these four murders, I’ll put it that way,” Quinn added.
Police haven’t said whether the same gun that was used to kill Jenkins and Mims also was used in the other two killings.
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(Photo Source: AP)
