Murder suspect captured after viral Facebook exchange with Columbus police
Tierre Tyrell Williams no longer is a Facebook joke.
The Phenix City man ridiculed online Dec. 4 when his exchanges with Columbus police went viral now is wanted for murder in LaGrange, Ga. He was captured late Wednesday in Phenix City by U.S. Marshals.
He planned to surrender to Columbus police Thursday, he said.
“It’s a very sad situation,” a caller identifying himself Wednesday as Williams, 28, told the Ledger-Enquirer, when asked about Sunday’s fatal shooting at a service station in LaGrange. “I can’t reverse the action that was done.”
He said he wished he had just left the Racetrac station on LaFayette Parkway, as he had intended, instead of getting into a confrontation that led to a Manchester, Ga., woman’s death.
In his earlier online exchanges with Columbus police, who on Facebook said Williams was wanted for breaking into businesses here and in Alabama, Williams had posted a phone number. When the Ledger-Enquirer called that number Wednesday, a woman answered, and said the wrong number had been dialed.
But then a man identifying himself as Williams called back from another number, and said he would turn himself in Thursday morning at the Columbus Public Safety Center. “They know where I am,” he said of police.
The caller was asked to confirm he was Williams by recounting the sentence he was given Nov. 14 in Muscogee Superior Court, where he faced charges of theft and credit card fraud, and he did, with information matching court records.
Authorities said Williams has promised to surrender before: “He has said it directly to me,” said Sgt. William Nelson of the LaGrange Police Department.
Columbus police said earlier Wednesday that Williams had made no arrangements to surrender to them, and they have exhausted all efforts to get him to do that.
Williams now is facing much more serious charges beyond the property crimes previously alleged.
The homicide
LaGrange police said officers were called about 11:50 p.m. Sunday to the Racetrac convenience store at 1519 LaFayette Parkway, where witnesses reported a man shooting at a car had wounded someone.
Officers found the car on the parkway near Huffman Drive, with 22-year-old Da’Jai Green inside. Medics arrived to take Green to Well Star West Georgia Emergency Department, where she later died.
Police said her boyfriend, 21-year-old Deangelo Finley of Auburn, Ala., had stopped at the service station and confronted Williams in the parking lot, and an argument began between the two acquaintances before Finley snatched a necklace from Williams’ neck and ran to his car.
Williams started shooting at the vehicle, hitting Green instead of Finley, and then fled in a Dodge Challenger, investigators said.
Finley was charged with robbery by snatching, said police, who Wednesday reported they’d obtained warrants charging Williams with murder, aggravated assault and other offenses.
Police reported Wednesday that Williams may be in the company of Lynasha Scott, who’s also wanted for questioning.
Williams caught the public’s eye earlier this month when property crimes investigators posted his photo to Facebook, asking the public to help them find the alleged burglar.
Usually suspects do not post responses, when police say they’re wanted, but Williams did:
“These folks act like I’m running or sum!!! Putting my picture and s--t on here ! Ain’t nobody running from y’all my number (removed) !!!!!! Ain’t nobody called me or nothing about this. I just had state court two weeks ago. Y’all halarious! There’s my number !”
The Ledger-Enquirer removed the phone number included in Williams’ comment for the purposes of this article.
Police responded: “Tierre Williams, you have known about this since we spoke to you several weeks ago. If you aren’t running, come on down to the Public Safety Building at 510 10th Street in Columbus (Georgia) like we asked you to before….”
A blast of online ridicule followed, with some of those commenting on the post calling Williams the “Hamburglar,” in reference to his description as 5-foot-8 and 300 pounds.
Columbus plea
Before Columbus police wanted Williams for burglary and LaGrange police accused him of murder, he was on probation for theft and credit card fraud, having pleaded guilty in Muscogee Superior Court just a month before the fatal shooting.
He pleaded guilty Nov. 14 to felony theft and 12 counts of financial transaction card fraud. Judge Gil McBride sentenced him to 15 years with five to serve and the rest on probation, but the five years to be suspended on condition Williams pay $11,158 in restitution.
He was to pay $10,224 over a span of months to a man he had defrauded “through the use of multiple electronic devices,” according to court records. And he immediately was to repay $934 to Aaron’s, the rental company, for repeatedly using the business’ credit card to buy gas for his personal vehicle.
Police warrants showed Williams between Sept. 29 and Oct. 14, 2018, bought gas at Columbus Circle K stores in amounts ranging from $41.98 to $100. Some purchases were only a day apart: He bought $89.97 worth of gas Oct. 11 at the Circle K on Floyd Road and returned to the same station Oct. 12 to buy $100 more.
Wiliams also gassed up at Circle K stations on Beaver Run Road, Buena Vista Road, Warm Springs Road, Bradley Park Drive, and on Fourth Street, across from the Columbus Civic Center.
He was sentenced as a first offender, meaning the thefts could have been cleared from his record had he met all the conditions of his probation, which included paying off the man he had defrauded by May 14, 2021.
Back online
Now both LaGrange and Columbus police have fresh Facebook posts identifying Williams not only as a suspected burglar, but also an alleged killer.
Online readers again were taken aback: “Is this the same dude they posted a week or so back and everyone was roasting him because they described him as obese?” one asked. “Then he lists his number and all?”
The same phone number was listed on Williams’ court records in Columbus.
If he surrenders here, Williams can be held in Columbus for violating probation, in addition to any burglary charges police add.
With felony convictions on his record, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, if he’s convicted of murder in LaGrange.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 2:20 PM.