On the night of January 8, 2020, Felix Cosme Jr., a 63-year-old man, was working at an O'Reilly Auto Parts store on Hamilton Mill Road in Buford when what should have been an ordinary evening turned into a killing. Cosme was a retired Gwinnett County sheriff's deputy, and after leaving law enforcement he had kept working, still carrying the instinct to protect people around him. According to investigators, a female employee had been outside helping a customer when she noticed a man sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot. When she went back inside, that man followed her in and demanded that she open the cash drawer. Cosme came from the back of the store, saw the robbery unfolding, and tried to pull his own weapon. Before he could stop the threat, the gunman shot him. He died there inside the store, and the robber fled toward Interstate 85.
In the days right after the shooting, the case carried the feel of a violent stranger slipping into the dark and disappearing. The FBI offered a reward as local and federal investigators chased leads, trying to identify the man who had stormed into the store and the driver who helped him escape. Detectives eventually learned the killing was not an isolated act. They connected the robbery at the Buford O'Reilly store to a wider pattern of armed robberies at auto parts stores across Gwinnett County and the metro Atlanta area. Surveillance work led them to a Volkswagen Jetta, and from there to Prince Robertson and Tavares Norah. Investigators later said that Robertson had previously been involved in a DUI stop in Braselton, and when officers reviewed body camera footage from that stop, they identified both men. Police also said masks and a gun found during that earlier encounter were believed to be tied to the robbery crew and to Cosme's killing.
The break came months later, on June 1, 2020, when detectives and an FBI agent conducting surveillance saw the same pair commit another armed robbery, this time at an AutoZone in Dacula. A chase followed, the suspects crashed, and both men ran. After an overnight manhunt, Robertson was arrested while walking near the neighborhood where the crash occurred, and Norah surrendered that same day. Authorities said the two were the same suspects from the O'Reilly homicide and linked them not only to Cosme's death but to a long string of robberies that had targeted auto parts stores over several years. Investigators ultimately said the pair had been connected to 15 armed robberies and that dozens of felony warrants were obtained.
As the case moved through the courts, the broad outlines of what happened in Buford became even clearer. Prosecutors said Robertson was the shooter and Norah was the getaway driver in the January 8 robbery that ended with Cosme's death. In February 2024, both men pleaded guilty. Robertson received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years after pleading guilty to felony murder, multiple counts of armed robbery and aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, and obstruction. Norah was sentenced to 40 years, with the first 20 to be served in prison, after pleading guilty to multiple counts of armed robbery and aggravated assault, along with other charges including criminal damage to property and obstruction. Officials also said the two remained under investigation for additional robberies in other counties.
What remains most striking about the case is how quickly the violence overtook an everyday moment. A store closing in Buford became the final scene in the life of a former deputy who stepped forward when someone beside him was in danger. The suspects did not vanish forever, and the case did not stay cold. It stretched from a single store on Hamilton Mill Road into a regional robbery investigation, then into arrests, guilty pleas, and long prison sentences. But at its center was still the same moment: Cosme seeing a coworker confronted by an armed robber and moving toward the danger instead of away from it.
