DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Cellphone video recorded by a witness captured every second of 33-year-old Thearon Almond’s shooting death.
Police were called to the A2B Budget Hotel on Ember Drive near Decatur Wednesday night.
“He had a good heart, you feel me? He had a good heart,” said Kyeshia Thomas, who identified herself as Almond’s girlfriend.
Thomas said Almond was coming to visit her at the motel when he got in an argument with a security guard. Police said that guard, 25-year-old Deontray Cooper, ordered Almond to leave, but Almond refused.
<strong><a href="http://www.wsbtv.com/videos/news/raw-cell-phone-video-captures-moments-before-fatal/vDTNNf/" target="_blank">RAW: Cellphone video captures moments before shooting</a></strong>
Police said Cooper was not armed with a gun as part of his security job and that he shot Almond with a personal weapon twice, killing him.
“The security had been messing with him. They had been messing with Thearon. They had been picking with him,” Thomas said. “My friend come up there and told me he had been shot.”
“He was not supposed to be on the property but he was killed there as he was headed off of the property,” Dwayne Elder, who identified himself as Almond’s brother.
In DeKalb County court Thursday afternoon, a judge read Cooper the murder charge he is facing. Cooper is being held in the DeKalb County Jail.
Meanwhile, at the motel family and friends created a memorial with candles, balloons and flowers at the location in the parking lot where Almond died. Other family members said the security guard should have called police.
“If you felt he was a threat you should have called officers. The precinct is right across the street,” said Kelvin Willis, who identified himself as Almond’s cousin.
WSBTV
