In the quiet neighborhood of Tanglewood in Monroe, Georgia, a weekend in May of 2018 was shattered by violence that left two men dead. One of them was 33-year-old Shaun Barfield, a resident of Monroe. On the evening of Sunday, May 6th, police and Georgia State Patrol officers responded to a call about a person shot and unresponsive on Tanglewood Lane. Upon their arrival at approximately 5:59 p.m., they discovered Barfield, who was pronounced dead at the scene by the Walton County coroner's office.
The discovery of Barfield's body came just a day after another fatal shooting in the same neighborhood. This prompted an immediate and intensive investigation by the Monroe Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and investigators from the Walton County District Attorney's Office. While authorities could not initially confirm if the two deaths were related, they actively pursued several leads in both cases. The investigation into Barfield's death quickly focused on a suspect.
Investigators identified 24-year-old Qumentiz Marquez McKibben of Monroe as the primary suspect in Shaun Barfield's murder and issued a warrant for his arrest on a felony murder charge. McKibben, who was known to frequent the Covington and Newton County areas, was considered armed and dangerous. Law enforcement officials publicly urged him to surrender. After a search involving multiple agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, McKibben was apprehended in the Covington area on the evening of May 22, 2018, and taken to the Newton County Jail.
During the investigation, authorities acted on anonymous tips that led them to Lake Varner in Newton County. A search of the lake by detectives and the Hall County Sheriff's Dive Team resulted in the recovery of a firearm. The weapon was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for testing to determine its connection to the homicides. Officials believed the recovery of the firearm could be instrumental in resolving the cases. Following McKibben's capture, authorities announced that the investigations into both weekend shootings remained active and that they expected to make additional arrests.
