City's Second Homicide of Year; Newnan man killed at Tavern
By JOHN A. WINTERS
john@newnan.com
A Newnan man was killed and another man arrested for murder after a weekend shooting at a Newnan area bar.
James Christopher Johnson III, 25, of Powell Place in Newnan, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, according to Newnan Police Chief Buster Meadows. Johnson was pronounced dead at Piedmont Newnan Hospital late Saturday night.
Adam Lee Edmondson, 26, of 227 Oak Street in Hogansville, is in the Coweta County Jail on a single charge of murder.
This is the second homicide in Newnan this year.
The shooting occurred at the Corner Tavern, 125 Newnan Crossing Bypass, about 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
Meadows, who held a press conference about the incident Monday afternoon outside police headquarters, said the shooting came after confrontations over two consecutive nights the two had regarding Johnson’s girlfriend.
The first incident occurred Friday night at the same bar as the shooting.
“This argument was based on Edmondson reportedly looking at Johnson’s girlfriend inappropriately,” police said in a statement issued prior to the press conference. “The argument did not get physical and the argument ended when Edmondson’s friend took him away and the two left the area.”
Johnson and his girlfriend returned to the Corner Tavern on Saturday night about 10:15, Meadows said. Later that night, Edmondson approached Johnson’s girlfriend on the outside patio. The girlfriend, after repeatedly asking Edmondson to leave her alone, then asked one of her friends to get Johnson and security personnel.
The two men got into “another confrontation,” Meadows said. The police statement added that Johnson pushed Edmondson “and then turned his attention to Edmondson’s friend.”
Meadows said Edmondson then shot Johnson once in the center of the chest. The gun was identified as a Springfield .40 caliber semi auto handgun. The chief said security personnel at the bar took Edmondson down and held him until police arrived.
“He (Edmondson) took my best friend,” the girlfriend said Monday after the press conference. “He was a good man. He fought for what he knew was right.”
The girlfriend, who did not want her name mentioned, said Johnson was the father of three children, but not with her. The girlfriend said the two men had never met before the incident Friday.
Meadows said the case remains under investigation and additional charges could be brought; however, the only charge now is murder.
The city’s first homicide was March 11, when Jonathan Varner, 21, was shot outside an east Newnan apartment complex. He died two days later.
Quandavis Watson, 22, who lived at the apartment building, was arrested and charged with murder less than two weeks after that shooting.
