Suspect brought to Richmond County in 13-year-old boy’s murder

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A suspect in the murder of an Augusta 13-year-old is now in Richmond County jail after being sent from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested.

Gregory Thornton was arrested last month in connection with the murder of Buddy Brown Jr., who was killed in downtown Augusta when he went downstairs from his apartment to pick up a food delivery.

Thornton, who’s from Baltimore, was staying in Augusta at the time of the shooting death of the boy.

Thornton was in the Charles B. Webster Detention Center as of Tuesday morning, according to deputies.

Also arrested was Tia Shante Jackson, who was taken into custody April 5 in West Virginia. Warrants against her include murder, according to Richmond County deputies.

Thornton fled back to Baltimore after the slaying at the Richmond Summit Apartments, 744 Broad St., according to authorities.

He’d been the subject of a manhunt in Maryland before he was caught in Pennsylvania.

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office says it had several warrants on Thornton, including for murder.

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After the boy’s slaying, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service were going to serve a warrant at Thornton’s apartment in Hartford County outside Baltimore when he fled and took police on a high-speed chase, according to authorities. The pursuit was called off because it became too dangerous.

Buddy was shot after going downstairs around 12:20 or 1 a.m. March 28 to pick up his DoorDash order. The murder was part of a more than yearlong surge in violent crime across the CSRA that’s now claimed nearly 90 lives.

Soon afterward, his dad fell asleep, then got a call around 3 a.m. that the boy’s body had been found outside the midrise brick apartment building.

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