In the early morning hours of January 29, 2019, the life of 28-year-old Ronald Horton Jr. was tragically cut short in a violent encounter at a Stone Mountain, Georgia hotel. A Black male from the nearby city of Snellville, Horton was a guest at the Days Inn on Glenn Club Drive when the fatal incident unfolded.
Just after midnight, the relative quiet of the hotel was shattered by the sound of gunfire, prompting several guests to dial 911.
Gwinnett County police officers were dispatched to the scene and discovered Horton inside a second-floor room, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Despite the immediate efforts of the responding officers to render aid, his injuries proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Detectives investigating the homicide believe that three individuals forcibly entered Horton's hotel room, fired the shots that killed him, and then fled the area on foot. A search of the surrounding woods was conducted with the assistance of K-9 units, but the suspects were not located. In the course of their investigation at the scene, authorities found marijuana and an undisclosed amount of cash in the hotel room.
In an effort to generate leads from the public, the Gwinnett County Police Department released surveillance footage in August of 2019. The video showed three heavily clothed and concealed individuals walking along the second-floor balcony of the hotel around the time of the shooting. Despite this effort and ongoing investigation, as of early 2020, the case was listed among Gwinnett County's unsolved homicides for the previous year. To date, there has been no public announcement regarding any arrests made or the identification of any suspects in the murder of Ronald Horton Jr. The investigation remains open as his family awaits answers and justice.
