Police: Argument occurred before fatal shooting at Warren Williams Homes

Police Sgt. Harvey Hatcher told Columbus Recorder’s Court on Friday that an altercation occurred prior to the April 30 fatal shooting at Warren Williams Homes that left 44-year-old Calvin Denson dead.

Timothy Lamar Jones, 42, pleaded not guilty to murder and weapon possession charges stemming from the shooting. He waived his hearing to Superior Court.

Jones is held in the Muscogee County Jail after he was denied bond on the murder charge but granted bonds totaling 50,000 for the remaining charges.

Police said they were called to the public housing complex at 1100 12th St. around 5:28 p.m. when patrol officers found Denson lying on the ground and suffering from two apparent gunshot wounds to the chest and one in the leg. He was just west of the building located directly behind the Columbus Housing Authority’s office building on Wynnton Road.

Denson of Seale, Ala., was transported to Midtown Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds at 6:03 p.m. A preliminary report from an autopsy conducted Tuesday shows that Denson died of two gunshot wounds to the torso, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said.

Jones was arrested in connection with the incident early Wednesday in the Atlanta area. He was charged with murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He was being held at the Clayton County Jail before he was extradited to Columbus at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Hatcher have released limited details concerning the incident, but stated that “some type of argument” happened before shots were fired. Witnesses, who led police to believe Jones was the shooter, also stated that the defendant and victim were friends.

Hatcher declined to comment further on how they were able to link Jones to the crime or clarify whether authorities have located the murder weapon.

Joyce Greene, the victim’s sister, said she doesn’t know the man who was arrested in connection with the shooting.

“Was my brother familiar with him or not, we don’t know,” she said.

A father of four children, Denson was a 1990 graduate of Russell County High School, attended Columbus Technical College and was a self-employed carpenter. Greene said her brother worked during the day of the shooting and has a friend who lives in an apartment at Warren Williams Homes.

Denson’s funeral is set for 11 a.m. Saturday in the C.T. Chapel of Taylor Funeral Home, Phenix City, where Ricky Wood is officiating. Burial will follow in Green Acres Cemetery in Columbus. Visitation is 1-8 p.m. Friday, according to Taylor Funeral Home Inc.

Bryan said the death is the first homicide since the March 26 shooting of Anthony Meredith at Peachtree Mall and the seventh of the year.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Police: Argument occurred before fatal shooting at Warren Williams Homes."