Hartwell Police Seeks Public’s Health In Solving Double-Homicide Case

The Hartwell Police Department is seeking help from the public in solving last month’s
double-homicide case outside a Hartwell nightclub.  In the early morning hours of Labor
Day (September 5), gunfire erupted in the parking lot Jack’s Bar & Grille.  Two men
were killed in the shooting, 39-year-old Roberius Meqwan Thornton of Hartwell, and
25-year-old Joseph Tyrone Johnson of Bowman.  At least two other people were
injured and several parked cars sustained damage from the bullet holes.  Jack’s has
since closed.

Hartwell Police Chief Anthony Davis says his department is stymied at the moment.

“We’re getting information, but a lot of it is duplicate information.  It’s something now from the day it happened to today.  It’s something somebody heard, what somebody else has already done told us.  We’re running down a lot of leads that we’ve already done heard.”

Davis says investigators have spoken to approximately hundred people, and while they
have suspects, they do not have enough information to make an arrest.

“Anything you know, anything you can help us with, please tell us.  I was an investigator for 22 years, and I always told the citizens of Hartwell, ‘I do not solve cases.  They solved them for me.’  And it was by talking.  And you know my grandpa taught me if you sit down and talk to somebody, you can learn a lot about them.  But right now, we ain’t having anybody to talk.  And that’s what we need.  We need the community to come together and say, ‘Hey, you know this is what happened.  I want to be the one to step forward and say ‘this is what happened.'”

Davis says he’s spoken with both victim’s families who want closure.

If you have any information that can help crack the case, call the Hartwell Police
Department at 706-856-3226 or the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Tip Line a 800-
597-TIPS (8477). You can also submit tips online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-
tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
You may remain anonymous.