12th suspect arrested in double murder at motorcycle club

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The 12th suspect has been arrested in connection with a double slaying at a local motorcycle club over the weekend.

Deja Dotson, 33, of St. Marys, Ga., was arrested Thursday after being released from a hospital, where he’d been since the shooting Saturday at the Outcast motorcycle group’s clubhouse at Sand Bar Ferry Road and East Boundary.

Killed in the shooting were Keith Coates, 30, of Valdosta, Ga., and Germayne Farrell, 51, of Daytona Beach, Fla.

Ten suspects were arrested soon after the shootings that also injured several people.

Dotson and another suspect, Jonathan Keaton, 32, also of St. Marys, were sent to the hospital with injuries. Keaton was arrested Tuesday after being released from the hospital and Dotson was arrested Thursday.

ALSO IN THE NEWS:

• After the shooting, an Augusta Fire Department vehicle ran over and dragged the body of shooting victim Germayne Farrell. Sheriff Richard Roundtree characterized the incident as a “freak accident.” News 12 asked his agency whether there are any new developments in the investigation of that incident, and the agency replied Thursday: “There has been no new information given out by the Sheriff’s Office concerning the investigation.” We’re awaiting records from the Augusta Fire Department about any internal investigation.

Like the other 10 suspects who were arrested, Keaton and Dotson were charged with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault.

The gunfire erupted just before 6:35 p.m. Saturday during a cookout at the clubhouse.

Sheriff Richard Roundtree said the shooting grew out of a dispute in Florida between two motorcycle groups, one of which traveled from Florida to take out retaliation. We still don’t know what the incident was in Florida that sparked this shooting or how big of a threat there still is.

Four suspects are a part of Outcast and eight are Thug Riders.

The sheriff on Monday called this situation a wake-up call for his agency.

“It’s a lesson learned for us and I think it may help other neighborhoods in other cities become safer too by use sharing our information with them, sharing this incident, what we learned, and what we gathered, we definitely pass that on to them so we don’t get another retaliation in someone else’s backyard,” Roundtree said.

“This can happen somewhere else’s city and that’s why we’re trying to prevent what happened in our city on Saturday from happening in someone else’s city tomorrow,” he said.

MORE FROM NEWS 12:

• Augusta builds on teamwork to train for active shooters
• What is Augusta’s plan for mass shooting incidents?

When asked how to stop people from coming into Augusta with violence in mind, Roundtree said his agency has to have good intelligence and that deputies can see that crime can cross state lines easily.

“Very rarely do we see Florida to Augusta, but we have to increase our network, and a lot further reach. It is a lesson learned for us that we need to better our network when it comes to gun violence and gang violence that may spill over,” Roundtree said.

The other suspects arrested were:

• 31-year-old James Bryant of Fayetteville, N.C.
• 39-year-old Freddie Crosson of Saint Marys, Ga.
• 38-year-old Tyson Harper of Lumberton, N.C.
• 26-year-old McKayla Rickett of Kingsland, Ga.
• 44-year-old Larry Ross of Hephzibah, Ga.
• 30-year-old Cory Sapp of Kingsland, Ga.
• 30-year-old Jessica Sapp of Kingsland, Ga.
• 42-year-old Larry Sutton of Fayetteville, N.C.
• 43-year-old Kenneth Taylor of Boynton Beach, Fla.
• 28-year-old Matthew Willis of Saint Marys, Ga.

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