In the early morning hours of December 29, 2022, Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy James Thomas, 24, was found dead in the driver’s seat of his wrecked Ford Fusion on Bolton Road in Atlanta. He had sustained a gunshot wound prior to the crash. Thomas, originally from Mississippi, had been recruited from the Milledgeville Police Department and was assigned to the detention unit at Grady Memorial Hospital and had been with the sheriff’s office for less than a year.

Atlanta police identified a suspect using a truck driver’s dash camera and the city’s security camera network. On January 2, 2023, 26-year-old Alton Deshawn Oliver was arrested and charged with murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. At trial, Oliver testified he fired after feeling threatened by unwanted sexual advances from Thomas; prosecutors said Oliver did not mention those claims in initial interviews and argued deadly force was not justified. The jury returned a not guilty verdict on all counts in August 2025.

Are there readers who knew Deputy Thomas or who can shed light on his movements that night?