Austell Home Invasion Suspect Caught After Chase, Shooting

AUSTELL, Ga. -- What began early Friday morning as a deadly home invasion in Austell ended in a hail of gunfire in South Cobb County Friday evening.

Cobb police received a call to investigate a home invasion in the early morning hours of Friday along Brass Trail in Austell. When they arrived, they found a man shot to death, and three other men who were shot.

Police identified the dead man as Nicholas Garner, 20, of Powder Springs. The other three men who were shot were identified as Dimitri Hunder, 22, Aaron Grimes, 22, and Brandon Cox, 25, all of Powder Springs.

Fast forward to Friday evening, at about 7:00. Police were acting on tips from people who live in the neighborhood of the home invasion, looking for the getaway car that witnesses described, a grey Mercury Marquis. Police say they spotted it along Factory Shoals Road in South Cobb County.

The driver sped away from police, going up to 80 mph. Police said that during the chase, the passenger in the front seat shot at police through the rear window.

Then, police said, the passenger suddenly shot and killed himself.

That's when the driver pulled over and surrendered, along with the other passenger, on Six Flags Parkway and Lee Industrial Road, near I-20.

Police believe the man who killed himself may have been one of the triggermen in Friday morning's home invasion and quadruple shooting.

"We have a good idea, obviously, of what we could call a shooter, that being the individual who's deceased in the automobile behind us," said Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police Dept. "We think he was directly involved in it. However, there are going to be other people, and those people are the ones we need to bring to justice, as well."

Police arrested the driver and the other passenger and are questioning them. As of Friday night police were not releasing their names, or the name of the dead passenger.

"And that is what we're going to be doing," Pierce said. "We're going to be taking this case, with the statements [from] people obviously taken into custody here, or detained. And we're going to be interviewing them and we're going to find out the full story of their involvement."

Police continue to try to identify and find the others involved in Friday morning's home invasion and shootings.