Suspect arrested in fatal shooting of recent Morehouse graduate

Suspect arrested in fatal shooting of recent Morehouse graduate

Nicholas Smith

By Your Black World

      Atlanta police confirm that they have made one arrest in the slaying of a recent Morehouse graduate.

Police found Joe Gibbs fatally shot inside a car when they responded to reports of a crash near the Morehouse campus last Thursday. Gibbs died of multiple gunshot wounds while another person inside the car was also shot but survived. Police say there was also a third man inside the car who fled on foot.

According to police, the shooting wasn’t random.

“It appears that the shooting was in relation to some type of drug transaction between the victims and the suspects,” said Officer John Chafee of the Atlanta Police Department.

Police have taken 20 year old Nicholas Ross Smith into custody.

Gibbs’ uncle, Christopher McCoy, told local affiliate Fox 5 that he was surprised at the police assertion that this was a drug related murder.

“I don’t know what… could possibly have happened… that somebody would…want to harm him,” McCoy said.

Police are still searching for a second person in connection with the fatal shooting.

“We are withholding releasing the information on that person, but we do have a warrant out for his arrest,” Chafee said.

Family and friends recently held a vigil for Gibbs, who was in attendance when President Obama spoke at his commencement.

In a statement, Morehouse President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. said, “Under any circumstance, the loss of a young life is difficult to accept. But tragedies such as this demand that more be done to ensure the safety of our students.”