Ronald Trey Peters: Decatur, Georgia man victim of fatal shooting and robbery which involved use of anti gay slurs. Possible hate crime motivated?
A Georgia man was fatally shot and robbed by a masked gunman who called him an anti-gay slur while demanding his bag, police and witnesses said.
Ronald Trey Peters, 28, of Decatur, was gunned down on his way to work early Tuesday and is believed to be the victim of a ‘hate motivated’ crime, DeKalb County police said in an incident report obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Witnesses said Peters was walking toward a train station on Orchard Circle when two men got out of a truck and put on masks before one of them said ‘give me your bag, f—-t,’ WXIA reported.
One witness described trying to stop the ensuing confrontation.
‘So, I started coming off the porch,’ Kevin Pickering recalled. ‘By the time I got halfway, the driver was standing over him, jerked the bag and yelling obscene and gay slurs at him, and shot him in the chest point blank.’
One of the suspects used a ‘chrome pistol’ to shoot Peters once in the chest and a second time in the neck upon falling to the ground. The suspects then made off with Peters’ bag, police said.
The suspects fled the scene in a maroon, four-door truck driven by another man, witnesses told investigators.
Ronald Trey Peters: Georgia one of four states that does not have hate crime laws.
Peters, who is openly gay, was later pronounced dead at a hospital. His partner told police Peters had a previous encounter with two unidentified men who harassed him using the same slur a week earlier. It remained unclear whether Tuesday’s encounter was related to the previous incident.
Peters, originally from Pell City, Alabama, worked as a case manager at Regional Medical Group in Decatur, according to his Facebook page.
Georgia is just one of four states that does not have hate crime laws, which allows for stiffer penalties in crimes motivated by race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.
Detectives are still trying to identify the suspects in Tuesday’s slaying.
Do you recognize this 4 door maroon truck? Witnesses told police several men drove off in it Tuesday after shooting & killing #RonaldPeters. DeKalb Police are investigating his death as a #hatecrime. Watch @cbs46 for a closer look at this vehicle. pic.twitter.com/PFOoenKuQE
— Brittany Edney (@BrittanyEdney) June 7, 2019
