Justin Tyran Roberts.Photo: Columbus Police Department
A weekend shooting spree that injured five people in Alabama and Georgia was racially motivated, police allege.
At a preliminary hearing Monday in Columbus Recorder’s Court in Georgia, a detective testified that 39-year-old Justin Tyran Roberts, who is Black, allegedly admitted to police that he was targeting white men during a series of attacks over two days.
“Basically, he explained throughout his life, specifically white males had taken from him, and also what he described as military-looking white males had taken from him,” Detective Brandon Lockhart testified, theColumbusLedger-Enquirerreports.
The following day, at about 2 p.m., police believe Roberts allegedly fired on a man as he was getting into his vehicle under the Oglethorpe Bridge in Columbus, according to theLedger-Enquirer. He was struck in the back and has since been released from the hospital, theLedger-Enquirerreports.
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During the hearing for the Columbus shooting, Lockhart testified that Roberts also told police that men were shooting at him with a slingshot in the woods, which caused him to get a skin infection, theLedger-Enquirerreports. But police said Roberts had no wounds.
The judge agreed during the hearing to Roberts' public defender’s request for a mental health evaluation, according to theLedger-Enquirer.
Roberts is charged with aggravated assault, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm in the bridge shooting. He is also charged with three counts of aggravated assault, using a gun to commit a crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the attacks on the two men and one woman in Columbus, the Ledger-Enquirer reports. It is unclear if he has been charged in the Phenix City shooting.
It was not immediately clear if he has entered a plea. His public defender in Georgia could not be reached for comment.
source: people.com
