LOGANVILLE, Ga. — A man has now been charged with murder in the killing of a pharmacy technician outside a CVS last year.
As many questions surrounded the shooting, police finally were able to give some answers about who killed Kimberly Whaley, 62, that day.
“I’m hoping I might be able to sleep tonight,” Loganville Police Chief Dick Lowry told reporters on Monday, announcing the arrest.
For five months, Lowry has carried that weight. Someone shot and killed Whaley in the middle of the afternoon in a CVS parking lot on Atlanta Highway in Loganville on Nov. 14, 2925.
The man police believed pulled the trigger walked free that same night. Evander Choates, 29, is now charged with murder.
“When we were forced to release him the night that this happened, I assure you none of us were happy about it,” Lowry said.
Detectives say they couldn’t build a case fast enough to hold him.
“There were no obvious connections. We don’t believe that he knew Ms. Whaley,” Lowry said.
So, they spent five months building one -- 24 search warrants, dozens of interviews, hundreds of pages of documents, and scientific testing.
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On Monday morning, a Gwinnett County SWAT team moved in on Choate and charged him with murder.
“It took a lot of effort, and it took these folks really digging into details,” Lowry said.
Whaley was a pharmacy technician at that CVS who left behind a grieving spouse, whom we spoke to in December.
Police haven’t released a motive, but after working the area, the chief said the case is ready for trial.
“This case that we have to hand off to him now, I’m extraordinarily confident in that case,” Lowry said.
The suspect in this case is also charged with aggravated assault and weapons charges. He remains in the Walton County Jail without bond.