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Clark Atlanta University baseball player Jatonne Sterling gunned down; suspect arrested

Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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The Atlanta Police Department has announced an arrest in the shooting death of Clark Atlanta University baseball player Jatonne Sterling.

Keontay Holliman-Peoples, 25, was taken into custody Thursday on multiple charges that include felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm, two days after the fatal shooting in the parking lot of a Catholic Center near campus.

Officers responded to a report of a person shot on Tuesday afternoon and found Sterling, 20, unconscious and not breathing. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Thursday, Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Charles Hampton said Sterling knew the suspect and that they had "some correspondence" prior to Tuesday's shooting, which occurred inside of a white Toyota that the police have recovered and are processing.

"There was a vehicle parked in the parking lot behind (Clark Atlanta's) Catholic Center. We know that Jatonne got inside that vehicle," Hampton said in a press conference. "There was some type of dispute that occurred inside the vehicle… Whatever type of dispute escalated into gunfire and then that's where we had the exchange of gunfire. Everything happened inside that vehicle."

Hampton said Holliman-Peoples, who isn't a student at the university, is recovering from injuries. Police are looking for a third male who was also inside the vehicle.

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Sterling was a sophomore on the Clark Atlanta University Panthers baseball team. He's a Chicago native that won a 2021 city championship at Morgan Park High School.

"I got to bury another ball player," Sterling's former coach Ernest Radcliffe told a local news station. "We're not supposed to do that."

A candlelight vigil planned by the university's student government was held on campus Wednesday.

"We offer our condolences not only to Jatonne, but our baseball team, his friends and the entire Clark Atlanta University," the school's Chief of Police Debra A. Williams said on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jatonne Sterling: Clark Atlanta University baseball player killed