A man accused of gunning down a 53-year-old during a fight outside an East Atlanta auto repair shop didn’t make it far from the crime scene before being chased down by police and handcuffed at gunpoint.
Lashon Grace, 42, remains in the DeKalb County Jail on a murder charge following the deadly Feb. 27 shooting.
According to police, officers assigned to Atlanta’s Street Racing Detail had stopped a car near the intersection of Moreland Avenue and Memorial Drive about 8 p.m. when they were flagged down about a shooting that occurred moments earlier in the parking lot next door.
In body camera footage released Tuesday, a man can be heard approaching the officers’ patrol car and telling them his friend had been shot. Outside the Express Oil Change, police discovered Antonio Holder with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses directed the officers toward Grace, who had left the area on foot just before they arrived, Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Chafee said.
Two officers assigned to the weekend racing detail spotted the man and chased after him. As they did, one of the officers noticed him toss something over a fence.
“He just threw the gun,” one officer is heard saying as he and his partner began sprinting down Memorial Drive with their guns drawn.
The chase didn’t last long. Within a minute, Grace complied with the officers’ commands and laid down on the sidewalk with his arms outstretched. Police later recovered the handgun that he reportedly threw over the fence, Chafee said.
It’s unclear if Grace and Holder knew each other, but investigators said the fatal shooting may have stemmed from an argument over a car. The incident was one of nearly a dozen shootings Atlanta police responded to within a 12-hour period that weekend and the only one that was fatal.
The homicide investigation is ongoing, but detectives believe Grace was the only suspect involved. The Lithonia man remained held without bond Tuesday afternoon.
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