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“Shots fired! Shots fired!” a Georgia police officer tells other members of law enforcement. “They’re still in the vehicle with shots being fired.”
One person inside that particular vehicle would be found dead – shot with a handgun. The second person would be charged with her murder.
This week, Law&Crime obtained body-worn camera footage from the Fayetteville Police Department that shows various segments of their fast-unfolding investigation into a woman’s workplace kidnapping, the quick pursuit of the victim and assailant, the shots that took her life, and her ex-boyfriend’s eventual arrest.
Cameron Hopkins, 20, is accused of multiple crimes in multiple jurisdictions across the broader Atlanta metro area over the high-speed chase that ended in a high school driveway – and with his ex-girlfriend, Khaliyah Jones, 19, was killed inside his red Camaro on July 16.
In Fayetteville, he is charged with one count each of kidnapping, and aggravated assault, according to the Fayetteville Police Department. The Clayton County Police Department has charged Hopkins with one count of malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.
The incident began at a WingStop where the victim worked on North Glynn Street in Fayetteville. A father and son told police what happened after a man said something to Jones she tried to ignore.
“She continued to do what she was supposed to be doing, I guess, waiting on everybody,” the older witness said. “And, finally, he appeared to be a little frustrated, so what he did is he walked behind the counter. The lady that I’m assuming was the manager [said] ‘What are you doing? Don’t be going beyond this point.’ He proceeded to go in the back, accosted her back toward the rear of the door, grabbed her by the arm, and walked her out of here with a weapon.”
The witness said the kidnapper and his victim left in what appeared to be “some kind of order of a Camaro-type of vehicle – red-colored.”
The man’s son also witnessed the kidnapping – describing the man’s brandished gun as a “9 mm or a Glock” with a tan handle.
“At that point, my dad was out, I was worried about him,” the younger man told police. “So, I rushed outside. And I watched him. He marched her right over to the car. Put her in the car. She pro– she was protesting. But, you know, he had a weapon, so there wasn’t a lot she was going to do. And he took her in the car.”
In another clip, several officers finally make contact with the fleeing red Chevrolet Camaro at Lovejoy High School.
Fayetteville police can be seen using a so-called “PIT maneuver” to end the chase – which entails another vehicle forcing the fleeing vehicle into an abrupt sideways turn so that the driver loses control.
Shots can be heard echoing into the night as officers leave their vehicles. In the footage, police confer for several minutes as backup arrives before making their combined approach. Tense moments follow as multiple members of law enforcement attempt to cajole Hopkins out of his car using various commands.
In the footage, over two minutes pass as Hopkins alternates between wiping tears from his eyes and placing his hands out of the driver’s side window. Officers shout for him to “climb over,” “come out,” and “crawl out” the window. One officer occasionally interjects to instruct the others to speak with “one voice.”
“The passenger looks deceased,” one officer can be heard saying. “She’s deceased. She’s gone.”
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“He blew her brains out,” another officer says.
“The suspect exited his vehicle after Fayette County deputies deployed an OC-type irritant into the suspect’s vehicle, and police took him into custody,” the FPD said in their press release on the case.
Hopkins eventually opened the driver’s side door and left the car – crawling as officers swarmed and cuffed him.
The footage picks back up again as an officer pours water from a bottle into the suspect’s eyes to clear away the pepper spray.
“Where is she?” Hopkins asks, appearing to cry.
“She’s in the car where you left her,” an officer replies.
Later footage shows two officers discussing the suspect’s alleged excuse for the gunshot wound to Jones’ head.
“I think he’s full of s–––,” one officer tells another. “He says she had the gun, and she shot herself.”
The second officer replies: “No, it was him.”
The incident began on July 16.
On Saturday, July 16, 2022, Hopkins allegedly kidnapped Jones for the first time, according to the Lovejoy Police Department.
In that incident, he was accused of “dragging a female out of the vehicle at gunpoint” at a Walmart parking lot and “forcing her into his vehicle before fleeing the scene.”
During the first kidnapping, Hopkins allegedly contacted family members and “expressed his rage over the relationship ending and threatened to shoot and kill Ms. Jones if police attempted to pull him over.”
At the time of the victim’s death, he was out on bond for charges of terroristic threats, kidnapping, criminal damage to property in the second degree, possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime, and aggravated assault – all of which were related to the previous kidnapping incident, police said.
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