‘Somebody’s in my house!’ Columbus murder suspect fleeing cops ran into stranger’s home

Ty’Shaun Sylvester was hard to catch when Columbus police were seeking suspects in the 2020 fatal shooting of Quincy Atkins.

Neither he nor codefendant Jessie Lee Harper were captured on April 18, 2020, the day Atkins was shot in the back as he tried to drive away from an armed robbery at a vacant house on Cusseta Road at Betjeman Drive, police testified during the suspects’ murder trial this week in Muscogee Superior Court.

Ten days later, they escaped when officers tried to stop their red Jeep Patriot on Cusseta Road at Andrews Road, around 11 a.m.. Sylvester jumped out of the moving vehicle and ran, tossing aside a backpack. Harper drove the Jeep onto nearby railroad tracks, leaving it there as he fled, authorities said.

On May 5, 2020, police and U.S. Marshals tracking Sylvester followed him from South Lumpkin Road to the Benning Hills neighborhood off Fort Benning Road, where again he jumped out of his vehicle and ran, this time into a stranger’s home.

Former Columbus police officer Jacob Cook, now a sheriff’s deputy in Lee County, Alabama, testified to the homeowner’s shock at finding an intruder.

“He was terrified by the whole situation,” Cook said, adding the occupant called 911 to say, “Somebody’s in my house!”

A brief standoff followed before Sylvester surrendered, Cook said.

Harper was arrested the following May 29 on Luna Drive in Columbus, police reported at the time. The pair have been awaiting trial since their arrests.

The shooting

For three days prosecutors have been sifting through evidence in the case, having police officers testify to the items collected during their investigation.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Sadhana Dailey has told jurors that Atkins and two friends, Dwayne Jackson and Anthony McGhee, took Atkins’ black Dodge Charger to meet Sylvester at the Cusseta Road house to buy a Draco, a Romanian semi-automatic with an extended clip, comparable to an AK-47.

Jackson testified that they examined the gun before Sylvester pointed it at them as Harper pulled out a pistol, and demanded their valuables.

He said Harper pulled him out of the Charger and took his gold chain, and McGee was ordered to surrender a cell phone and lie on the ground. Atkins gave the robbers his 9-millimeter pistol, told them more possessions were in the trunk, and popped it open, Jackson said.

When Sylvester and Harper went to the rear of the Charger, Atkins tried to speed away as they opened fire, witnesses said. Bleeding to death, the 20-year-old circled across Cusseta Road before crashing into a house on the other side of Betjeman Drive, police said.

Both the suspects and the other two victims fled afterward. Police were called by frightened bystanders reporting the shooting about 5 p.m., on a Saturday when multiple people, including parents with children, were nearby.

The evidence

Police have said they never found the gun that fired the fatal shots.

But while searching the abandoned Jeep Patriot, they found the 9-millimeter that Atkins was robbed of, investigators said.

“He never left home without the gun,” said Jason Carden, a former detective who once led the investigation. He said the gun’s serial number was collected when officers earlier examined the pistol in Harris County, where Atkins got pulled over for a traffic stop.

Sylvester’s defense attorney, William Kendrick, repeatedly asked officers whether they found any shell casings or bullet fragments that could have come from Sylvester’s Draco, which fires a 7.62-millimeter round.

Police said they did not, and only 9-millimeter casings were found where Atkins was shot.

Sylvester and Harper both are 26 now, and face life without parole if convicted. Each has a prior felony conviction.

Besides murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault, they face charges of using a gun to commit a crime and being convicted felons with firearms.

Sylvester has a June 3, 2016, conviction for first-degree burglary, and Harper was convicted December 18, 2019, for selling marijuana, according to their indictment.