In the late hours of a September night in 2018, Terrick Matthews, a 24-year-old father of two, was resting in the passenger seat of a Nissan Maxima parked at the Parkside at Camp Creek Apartments in East Point, Georgia. The quiet was shattered when three armed individuals attempted to break into the vehicle, waking Matthews. Despite his and the driver's immediate compliance with the carjackers' demands to exit the car, a single gunshot echoed in the night, striking Matthews in the neck and
ending his life at the scene.
The assailants fled in the stolen Maxima, leaving behind a scene of senseless violence. A couple of hours later, the vehicle was discovered engulfed in flames in a different apartment complex on Old Hapeville Road in southwest Atlanta. Investigators later uncovered surveillance footage from a nearby Exxon gas station on Cleveland Avenue. The video captured one of the suspects purchasing gasoline, which he then used to fill a soda bottle before the car was set ablaze. This act of arson became a crucial piece of evidence in the ensuing investigation.
The search for those responsible for Matthews' death led police to identify three suspects: Ronald Dewan White, his 15-year-old brother, and Luther Bernard Ausbrooks. The investigation saw a significant breakthrough when the mother of the teenage suspect, after seeing his image in the news from the gas station surveillance footage, made the difficult decision to turn her son in to the authorities. This led to the subsequent arrest of Ausbrooks in October of that year on multiple charges including murder, carjacking, and armed robbery.
The final suspect, Ronald Dewan White, remained at large for several months, prompting a public appeal for information on his whereabouts. He was eventually apprehended in February 2019 in neighboring Cobb County on unrelated charges. Upon his release from Cobb County's custody, he was set to be transferred to face murder and other charges in Fulton County for his alleged role in the tragic and unnecessary death of Terrick Matthews.
