By Tim Chitwood
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The man charged in Columbus’ first homicide of 2018 was convicted of killing a Tennessee police officer in 1975 and has other felonies on his local court record, authorities said Thursday.
Police employed a SWAT squad Wednesday to capture Tommy McNeal, 65, at a home on Kendrick Avenue, charging him with the fatal Jan. 1 shooting of Nancy Johnson during a New Year’s Eve party on Colorado Street.
McNeal also is accused of wounding the woman’s 44-year-old daughter.
McNeal had known the family for about 25 years, relatives said. He was trying to get inside to join the party, but Johnson wouldn’t allow him in, so he fired through the door, police said. The gunfire mortally wounded Johnson, whose daughter was shot when she went outside to confront McNeal, investigators said. She was treated and released from the hospital.
McNeal’s criminal history includes the March 17, 1975, murder of Officer Hugh Everette Eubanks of Bolivar, Tenn., who was killed after being called to a domestic dispute.
Upon his arrival, Eubanks spoke with two men who told him nothing was wrong and no one had called police, authorities said. The officer was on the radio with a dispatcher when McNeal shot him three times in the chest with a .30-06 rifle, investigators said.
Eubanks, 53, had been on the police force for 12 years.
Though McNeal was sentenced to life in prison, he was paroled in 1982.
Columbus court records show McNeal was arrested for armed robbery, aggravated assault, being a convicted felon with a firearm and pointing a pistol at another person for an incident on Aug. 6, 2000.
He was accused of using a Lorcin .380 pistol to rob a man of his wallet and hit him over the head with the gun. He pleaded guilty Feb. 26, 2001, to aggravated assault and being a felon with a gun, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison with five to serve and credit for 204 days he’d already spent in jail, according to court records.
His other charges were dismissed. He was paroled March 14, 2005.
His other convictions were traffic offenses:
On May 5, 1999, he was sentenced to three years’ probation as a habitual violator after police caught him driving on a suspended license Jan. 15, 1999, on Third Avenue, records showed. No previous traffic offenses leading to his habitual violator conviction were listed.
On April 14, 2009, police stopped him for running a red light at Wynnton Road and Buena Vista Road, and charged him with driving under the influence when a test showed his blood-alcohol content registered more than .10. He was sentenced to serve 18 days in jail and two years on probation.
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