Man charged in deadly Russell County shooting at Dollar General

A man was arrested Tuesday morning in the deadly shooting outside of Dollar General in Fort Mitchell, Ala., that left one dead and two injured.

Justin Tyler Davidson, 26, was charged with murder in the shooting of 45-year-old Lorenzo Freeman. He is being held in the Muscogee County Jail under a $50,000 bond until he is extradited to Russell County.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said Davidson was among the group of people involved in a two-vehicle road rage incident that started around 8 p.m. Thursday on JR Allen Parkway in Columbus and crossed state lines into Fort Mitchell. There were at least two people in each vehicle, authorities said.

“They basically got into a shouting matching, shooting each other birds,” the sheriff said. “They were tailgating each other back and forth, starting on JR Allen. There were no shots fired out of the cars driving down the road.”

Taylor said he believes that both groups thought that the other group was chasing them after the initial dispute. In actuality, they were all just headed to their homes in Fort Mitchell.

“Both cars called ahead and had family members meet them at the gas station,” he said. “That’s part of what this whole issue was. They called ahead and got other people involved.”

Authorities said they pulled over at the Sunoco gas station, where they continued to exchange before the dispute moved across the street to the Dollar General at 252 Sweetwater Branch Road.

Shots were fired in the parking lot near the front entrance of Dollar General, killing Freeman.Two of the men involved in the road rage incident were shot, one in the leg and the other in the shoulder.

Taylor said Freeman wasn’t an occupant in one of the vehicles traveling from Columbus, but he was involved in the dispute after it reached Fort Mitchell.

“We’re not clear if one of the shots were at the Sunoco station,” he said. “We’re trying to clear that up. But if there was, we think it was just potentially one.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2018 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Man charged in deadly Russell County shooting at Dollar General."