In the pre-dawn hours of a Saturday, a dispute that began inside a south Fulton County restaurant tragically escalated, ending the life of a 31-year-old mother. The woman, Tequilla Latrice Laye, was a female who found herself in the middle of an altercation that spilled out from the El Nopal Mexican Restaurant on Old National Highway into the parking lot on February 1, 2014.
The argument, which started around 4:30 a.m., took a fatal turn when shots were fired.
Witnesses reported seeing a car in the parking lot from which two or three gunshots rang out. As the crowd that had gathered outside ducked for cover, Laye was struck by the gunfire. When the chaos subsided and people got up from the ground, she was found lying there, bleeding. The vehicle, described by authorities as a gray Pontiac Grand Am with a broken front passenger's door window, fled the scene. Family members who arrived were left in disbelief, heartbroken over how they would break the news to her children and mother.
Initially, the Fulton County police sought two suspects based on witness descriptions and surveillance footage from the restaurant. The persons of interest were described as two men between 20 and 23 years of age, one with long dreadlocks and the other with a short afro. The investigation progressed, and on March 10, 2014, authorities made an arrest in the case.
Police charged 20-year-old Demetrius D. Baughns with the murder of Tequilla Latrice Laye. At the time of his arrest, it remained unclear whether the second individual sought by police was still at large. The arrest brought a measure of progress to the investigation into the senseless act of violence that cut a young mother's life short.
