Man charged with murder in Beltline stabbing has criminal history, records show
Just three months after being convicted of beating a woman at a MARTA station, authorities are now accusing the same man of randomly attacking two people.
In the most recent violence, police said one of the two victims was fatally stabbed on Atlanta’s Beltline.
Jahmare Ameen Brown, 21, faces a murder charge after a massive Thursday manhunt ended when police spotted him and a bike he had been riding on Peachtree Street near Pine Street. His arrest came about five hours after the Beltline attack near the Ansley Golf Club as authorities asked the public for help looking for the suspect, officials said.
He was booked into the Fulton County Jail shortly before 1 a.m. Friday on additional charges of possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony, aggravated assault and aggravated battery. An armed robbery charge was added Saturday morning, court records show.
Brown is expected to be in court Monday at 11:30 a.m.
An attorney for Brown did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
A review of Fulton jail logs reveals this isn’t Brown’s first time sitting in a cell. In February, he entered a negotiated guilty plea on a battery charge stemming from an attack on MARTA property, court records show. And in late 2025, he pleaded guilty to charges of loitering, willful obstruction, giving false information and disorderly conduct after Georgia State University police saw him “peering” into a campus building, various records detail.
Fulton Solicitor-General Keith Gammage said he was aware of Brown’s previous misdemeanor convictions in the county. Gammage extended his sympathies to Thursday’s victims in a written statement and said more investments need to be made into mental health intervention, safety initiatives and collaborative public safety strategies.
“The tragedy of this incident underscores the broader and ongoing challenges our community faces in balancing accountability, public safety, and access to meaningful behavioral health resources,” he said.
Thursday’s stabbing incident along the popular Beltline path in northeast Atlanta was reported around noon, shaking the city and locking down two schools amid the search for the suspect. The victim was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, where she died, police said.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office identified her Friday as 23-year-old Alyssa Paige. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has made attempts to contact her family.
Just before the stabbing, a postal worker was attacked with a rock at the nearby U.S. post office. According to Brown’s arrest warrant, that victim suffered a broken nose, as well as swelling and bruising to the face and neck.
Months ago, in January, Brown was booked into the Fulton jail on the separate battery charge, records show.
A court accusation document states Brown “intentionally” caused a “bloody gash” to a victim by “striking her.” An incident report obtained by the AJC describes the attack in greater detail.
The victim’s face, clothing and belongings were covered in blood when an officer got to her around 10 a.m. Jan. 19, the report reveals. The woman told the officer she was walking off a MARTA train at the Peachtree Center station when a man ran up to her and knocked her down. The man then “repeatedly punched her” in the face on the southbound platform.
That man was eventually identified as Brown after an officer spotted a person who matched the suspect description, according to the report. The victim was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for a gash above her right eye, which she couldn’t open, and pain, officials said.
Brown entered a negotiated guilty plea in February and was sentenced to 120 days at the county jail and 12 months on probation. He was also ordered to attend anger management classes, stay away from the victim and all MARTA properties, complete 140 hours of community service, and get a mental health evaluation and treatment, records show.
About a year before, in January 2025, GSU police said Brown “threatened to ‘beat up’ multiple officers” and resisted police as they attempted to detain him after they spotted him looking into a university building, according to a police report.
“We approached Mr. Brown and inquired about his actions. He stated he was ‘looking for a skate spot’, despite not having a skateboard in his possession,” the report notes.
Brown “became hostile” when officers tried to verify his identity and gave officers a false name, according to the report. At some point during the interaction with police, the report states Brown said, “’I normally fight people for doing this.’”
Late last year, Brown entered a negotiated guilty plea in that case and was sentenced to 15 days in jail and 12 months on probation. He was also ordered to complete a law- and decision-making course and stay away from all “Georgia State” properties, final deposition paperwork shows.
The two Thursday incidents are connected, and the victims were random targets, Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Thursday afternoon before the suspect’s arrest.
“We have thousands of people on the Beltline every day, and very few incidents that occur,” Schierbaum said. “This is a shock. It’s an outlier. And we’re going to make sure that we arrest this individual.”
During the investigation, police closed roughly 60 yards of the Beltline behind Flagler Avenue, just south of I-85, with crime scene tape.
Atlanta police officers and K-9 units were seen searching on foot in the area. Schierbaum said the department had officers on bicycles, on foot, in vehicles and using drones in the search for the suspect, who the chief said was riding an orange bicycle.
“We do have reasons to believe that he could be experiencing a mental health crisis,” Schierbaum said before Brown was apprehended.
During Thursday’s search around the Beltline for the suspect, Midtown High School and Howard Middle School were placed on temporary lockdown. Atlanta Public Schools spokesperson Seth Coleman told the AJC students were escorted to their buses to head home, while those who walk or ride their bicycles home had to seek parental permission or be picked up.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens sought to quell fears at a Thursday evening news conference during which officials announced the suspect had been placed in custody. Dickens said the city has implemented multiple safety measures to help keep people safe on the Beltline, including police bike patrols, an extensive camera network and extra lighting.
“The Beltline is a high-traffic area, and this happened during the daytime, and this is an individual that probably was just going about a normal activity on the Beltline that most people do,” Dickens said of the woman who died. “To have this happen, we know that gives people a little bit of concern, or a lot of concern.”
Keona Swindler, a spokesperson for Atlanta Beltline Inc., which oversees planning and development of the miles-long walking and biking path, directed questions about the stabbing to Atlanta police.
The police department has a dedicated unit, dubbed the “path force,” of officers who patrol the Beltline and nearby parks and neighborhoods, Schierbaum said.
He urged people to “go out and enjoy the Beltline.”
“It’s a great place to be. You’ll probably see me there this weekend,” the chief said.
Another stabbing incident took place in 2024 on the Beltline in the same area as Thursday’s incident. That fatal stabbing involved an escaped prison inmate who was charged with murder in the incident, the AJC previously reported.
In 2022, a man was found shot to death on the Beltline in Inman Park. Two men were found guilty of attempting to rob the victim, 60-year-old Thomas Arnold, before killing him, the AJC previously reported.
— Vanessa McCray and Ben Hendren contributed to this story.
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