In the winter of 2020, the life of 34-year-old Michael Riggins was abruptly ended in Tifton, Georgia. On January 24th, officers from the Tifton Police Department responded to a call about an unresponsive male at a residence on Eastgate Drive. Upon arrival, they discovered Riggins suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist with the homicide investigation. An autopsy was later performed at the GBI Macon Crime Lab.
The investigation into the death of the male victim led to the identification of several individuals. About a month after the incident, on February 24, 2020, authorities arrested 20-year-old Kevionta Trayvon Hicks and 36-year-old Tiffany Nicole Myers. Hicks was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery. Myers was charged with providing false statements to law enforcement.
The investigation continued to unfold over the following months, leading to the identification of three more suspects. Warrants were issued for Quintas Taszir Ryan, 22, Stanley Ray Watson, 27, and Sean Chin, 32, on charges of felony murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery. These three men were not immediately apprehended and were considered fugitives. Ryan was believed to have connections in New York, Chin in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Watson in Atlanta. It was also noted that Watson may have sustained a gunshot wound to his arm.
A multi-state effort to apprehend the remaining suspects proved successful. On March 3, 2020, Quintas Taszir Ryan was arrested in New York. A month and a half later, on April 22, Sean Chin was apprehended in Florida. The final suspect, Stanley Ray Watson, was taken into custody on August 10, 2020, by the U.S. Marshals Service in Brookhaven, Georgia. With Watson's arrest, all five individuals suspected of being involved in Riggins' death were in custody.
