A former Georgia State football star was killed in what Atlanta police are calling a violent armed robbery that occurred Tuesday afternoon.
Demazio Skelton, who played two seasons with the Georgia State Panthers, was killed in an incident that left three other men with gunshot wounds, according to local station 11Alive’s Cody Alcorn.
There were two men with Skelton inside an Atlanta apartment that was ambushed by four alleged armed robbers, who kicked in the door of the residence.
There was an apparent struggle over a gun inside the apartment before multiple shots went off.
Of the four armed robbery suspects who fled, one, 19-year-old Naim Amadu Smith, was arrested after going to Grady Hospital with a gunshot wound. Smith is charged with murder, armed robbery and aggravated assault charges.
The two other men shot in the apartment with Skelton are expected to survive, while the three other suspects that allegedly accompanied Smith to commit the robbery are still at large.
Police say that the apartment, located in Building 900 at Flats apartment complex on Maple Street in the Vine City neighborhood, was being used as an alleged stash house for drugs.
The Atlanta Police Department said they found marijuana packaged to be sold and mushrooms inside the apartment.
Skelton is a native of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he played basketball and football at Myrtle Beach High School. The college football safety then played two seasons at Georgia Military College before joining Georgia State in 2011.
Georgia State played its first college football game in school history the year before Skelton arrived on the team roster. After two seasons, the safety finished his college career with the Panthers as the school’s all-time leader with five interceptions, while adding 115 tackles in 22 total games.
The remaining three suspects in the killing of Skelton are believed to have fled the scene in a gray Mazda, police said.
Skelton was 35 years old.
“I knew Demazio when he played at GSU,” Facebook user Lawrence Wallis wrote in a comment. “Breaks my heart to hear that.”
