Local

Suspect in convenience store slaying taken into custody

WHITFIELD COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned that the woman accused of stabbing a Whitfield County convenience store clerk to death has been taken into custody.

Skyy Raven Marie Mims, 21, was taken into custody just after 5 p.m. Tuesday in Bartow County, according to Gavin Duffy with US Marshal Service.

Duffy said the case has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Police had been searching for Mims since just before midnight Sunday where investigators said she was seen in surveillance video entering the Kankus convenience store on Airport Road in Dalton.

Dahyabbi Kalida Chyaudmari was found stabbed to death a short time later.
 
"Right now I'm lost. My mind is lost. I'm saying, 'I cannot say anything,' you know?" store owner Kanu Chaudhair told Davis.
 
Chaudhari told Davis the victim, Chyaudmari, known as "Deke," had worked at the store only a couple of months.
 
"He's always happy, smiling to customers and he's always smiling," Chaudhair said.
 
Tuesday the store opened for the first time since the robbery. The sheriff's office says Mims walked into the store, stabbing the victim to death in a back room just a few feet from the front counter, according to the owner.              
 
"They're going in this door, go to the inside register and this lady hit him behind in the neck," Chaudhari told Davis.
 
The sheriff wouldn't say how they identified the suspect.

"We've identified some spots in Atlanta we believe she may have frequented, so we're working with the GBI very closely and maybe, in fact, working with some of the Atlanta agencies to follow up on what happened," Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood told Davis.
 
The store owner told Davis the Mims got away with cash and about $80 - $90 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets.
 
Chaudhari told Davis that a customer discovered the clerk's body in the back when he saw no one at the counter.
 
"The customer came (in) back door and then knocked on door and nobody answered, then maybe customer called 911," Chaudhari said.
 
Abbas Sayed, who is a clerk at a near-by convenience store, says he always takes extra precautions when he works nights.
 
"My boss says like every time if we have more than $100 then we'll try to drop in as much money as we can and if someone comes, just give them what they want and try to be as safe as you can," Sayed said.