Medical examiner IDs Maybach driver in rush hour deadly shooting

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A medical examiner has positively identified the man fatally shot while driving on Interstate 20 in DeKalb county during rush hour last week as James Lewiel.

Lewiel was a rapper who also went by the alias OG Double D, according to DeKalb police.

Lewiel was driving a Maybach -- a rare luxury car that sells for upward of $400,000. Now, police are working to find the person witnesses saw fire at him from a white SUV.

"It sounded like a bazooka," an unidentified witness said about the shooting.

The witness described to Channel 2's Ashley Swann  what he heard moments before the black Mercedes Maybach came to a stop along I-20 westbound at Glenwood Avenue Thursday afternoon.
 
DeKalb police said drivers also called from the interstate to report actually seeing the gunfire coming from a white SUV in the middle of rush hour.
 
"We potentially could've had an extremely dangerous situation," DeKalb Police Department spokeswoman Mekka Parish told Swann. "Possibly shots were fired from that white SUV into the black car. That white SUV did flee the scene."
 
An off-duty Atlanta firefighter pulled over at the sight of the stopped sedan and found Lewiel inside shot multiple times.
 
He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition, but later died.
 
"At this point, we are still looking into the background of this victim and trying to positively identify the victim," Parish said.

Several lanes of I-20 were shut down as police investigated the crime. With the Maybach's windshield wipers still going, onlookers like Daniel Chapman wondered about the person who could've afforded such a car, and who would've shot him as he drove down the road.

"I guess it had to be somebody mighty important to be driving that one," Chapman told Swann. "It could've been just like road rage, but I doubt that. I don't think they'd just shoot like that. You know, people doing strange things nowadays. Chalk it up to what the world's coming to."
 
Only 3,000 of these newer Maybachs have been sold. At this point, police aren't saying if they believe the car played any role in this crime.

WSBTV