Search for man sought in death ends in Georgia
By Lee Williams
Published in News on February 23, 2007 1:51 PM
MOUNT OLIVE — A Mount Olive resident who fled the state after he allegedly murdered a man on Center Street is now in custody.
Ahmad Stewart, 24, accused in the Feb. 9 shooting death of Bobby Seaberry, 27, of South Jefferson Street, was picked up Wednesday by police in East Point, Ga.
The city, which is south of Atlanta, had been hit with a rash of carjackings and they questioned Stewart to find out who he was and why he was in the area, Mount Olive police Chief Emmett Ballree said. But Stewart wasn’t immediately forthcoming about his identity, the chief said.
“Two officers approached him and did a field contact,” he said. “He gave them a name. They found out the name wasn’t correct, and they brought him in for questioning.”
Stewart finally told the officers what his real name was. They ran his name through the National Crime Information Computer and discovered he was wanted by Mount Olive police on an open count of murder.
Ballree and another officer drove to East Point and questioned the suspect for about an hour. Even though, Stewart’s hair was shorter and he was clean-shaven, Ballree knew they had their man.
Stewart is being held in the Fulton County, Ga. for now, but he will later be brought back to Wayne County.
“It could take two weeks to a month to get him back in North Carolina because we have to go through the extradition process,” Ballree said.
Ballree declined to say whether he admitted to the murder. However, he did say the men had been involved in some type of disagreement, fight or argument a few days before the murder.
Seaberry was shot in the 200 block of Center Street. He collapsed in a woman’s yard. He was transported to Wayne Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
That’s when the search for the suspect ensued.
Ballree said he had no idea Stewart had fled to Georgia.