In the fading daylight of a Palm Sunday afternoon in Columbus, Georgia, the sounds of a block party were tragically pierced by gunfire. On April 10, 2022, 19-year-old Marque Humber was on Fort Benning Road when violence erupted, leaving him with fatal gunshot wounds. Humber, an active duty military member, was rushed to the Piedmont Columbus Regional Emergency Room, but he was pronounced deceased at 6:54 PM.
Another young man, 19-year-old Na'kevius Petty, was also shot and killed in the same incident.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly led authorities to a suspect. Within days, the Columbus Police Department had secured warrants for the arrest of Elijah Smith. The U.S. Marshals Service, in conjunction with the Muscogee County Sheriff's Office and the Phenix City Police Department, tracked Smith to neighboring Alabama. On April 20, 2022, just ten days after the shooting, Smith was taken into custody in Phenix City without incident.
Following his arrest in Alabama, Elijah Smith was held in the Russell County Jail, awaiting extradition back to Muscogee County, Georgia. He faced two outstanding warrants from the Columbus Police Department for two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault in connection with the deaths of Marque Humber and Nakevius Petty. His arrest brought a swift, if not complete, sense of resolution to a community shaken by the sudden and violent loss of two of its young men.
