Read the P1 News Report: 2 off-duty Ga. officers fatally shot in ambush
By Mike Morris, David Simpson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DeKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Authorities made two more arrests Friday in the shooting deaths of two DeKalb County police officers but also dropped charges against a man arrested earlier.
On Friday afternoon, federal agents arrested Mario O’Brian Westbrook, 31. Earlier in the day, sheriff’s deputies and U.S. marshals arrested William Maurice Woodward, 26.
Westbrook, 31, is also known by the name “Lil’ Mario.” Police had set up a tip line for information.
Westbrook served time in prison for a DeKalb drug conviction in the 1990s, state prison records showed.
Meanwhile, charges were dropped against Deanthius Jamal Johnson, 28, police spokeswoman Keisha Williams said. Johnson surrendered early Thursday. Williams said he was arrested after witnesses reported he bragged about being at the crime scene, but authorities determined he was not involved.
William Maurice Woodward, 26, was arrested by DeKalb sheriff’s deputies and U.S. marshals who stopped a car he was riding in at I-20 and Wesley Chapel Road, said police Deputy Chief M.R. Burrows.
Woodward, who also has used the name last name “Woodard,” was known as “Bo C,” authorities said.
Woodward had been arrested several times in DeKalb. He pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge in 2001 and later served four months in jail for violating his probation.
Earlier this week, police also arrested and charged Herbie DeShawn Durham, 32, with two counts of murder.
Williams said detectives do not know if additional suspects will be charged.
Officers Ricky Bryant Jr., 26, and Eric Barker, 33, were fatally wounded shortly after midnight Wednesday in a parking lot at the Glenwood Gardens apartment complex near I-285 on Glenwood Road in south DeKalb.
Police have not released details on how the officers were killed. Derrick Murchison, a resident of the complex, said the two officers, who were working an off-duty job as security guards at the apartments, had stopped a man in the parking lot and apparently were frisking him moments before the shooting.
Bolton said those involved in the crime “can’t hide on this one. You might as well give up.”
Durham apparently has no criminal convictions in DeKalb County and has not served time in a Georgia prison, according to online records. Durham did not speak during his first court appearance Thursday night in DeKalb Magistrate Court. He is being held without bond.
“I’m sure he’ll be vindicated,” said Douglas J. Hassinger, Durham’s lawyer. “In the meantime, he will let the system take its course.”
The slain officers had been hired in recent months to provide security in the half-empty apartment complex.
Murchison, who lives in an apartment overlooking the shooting scene, had become accustomed to the officers stopping late-night visitors to the complex.
Murchison said he looked out his window and saw the officers with a man who apparently was leaning against a car to be frisked. Moments later, shots were fired.
Copyright 2008 Atlanta Journal-Constitution