Georgia man accused of killing SUV passenger, 71, on ride from Atlanta Hartsfield airport
A Columbus man is being charged with fatally shooting a 71-year-old man in the head after the victim was picked up at the Atlanta airport, according to Troup County sheriff’s investigators.
JonThomas Cloud, 29, is accused of shooting Andrew Stankiewicz as Stankiewicz sat in the front passenger seat of a Cadillac Escalade on the trip back to Columbus, authorities said.
Also in the vehicle was Stankiewicz’s wife, who lives in Columbus, investigators said. They said Stankiewicz was living in Texas.
Deputies were called at 12:36 p.m. Sunday to reports of someone shot at Well Star West Georgia Medical Center in LaGrange.
A LaGrange police sergeant at the hospital told deputies that a man was dead in the emergency room and evidence was in a vehicle parked in the hospital’s ambulance bay.
The sheriff’s criminal investigations division was notified and examined the Escalade, finding blood in the front passenger’s seat and bullet holes in the seat and in the front window.
They questioned Cloud and Stankiewicz’s wife, who had been driving the Cadillac, and learned Cloud had been sitting in the back seat behind Stankiewicz, investigators said.
They said Cloud and the wife had left Columbus to get Stankiewicz at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and started back.
“At some point during their ride to Columbus on Interstate 85, Cloud shot Stankiewicz in the back of his head,” the sheriff’s office said Monday in a news release. “The driver then proceeded to West Georgia Medical and on their arrival 911 was notified.”
The precise circumstances leading to the shooting were still being investigated, said Sgt. Stewart Smith, the sheriff’s public information officer.
Cloud is charged with murder and using a firearm to commit a felony, he said.
This story was originally published October 9, 2023 at 3:32 PM.