Nearly four years after gunfire erupted outside a Georgia bar and left two men dead, investigators have charged five people with felony murder in a case that sat cold for so long that victims' families held a graveside balloon release just to keep it in the public eye. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced the arrests on September 1, 2026, naming Contorious White, Trenton Shoemaker, Jo’Beau Almond, Kyairre Thomas and Ke’Ardrick Tucker as suspects in the shooting outside Jack’s Bar and Grill in Hartwell.
The shooting happened at roughly 2:15 a.m. on Labor Day, September 5, 2022, in the parking lot of the bar along U.S. Route 29, according to 92.1 WLHR. Thirty-nine-year-old Roberius Thornton, of Hartwell, was pronounced dead at the scene, while 24-year-old Joseph Johnson, of Bowman, Georgia, was rushed to AnMed Medical Center in Anderson, South Carolina, where he died later that afternoon, the station reported. Multiple rounds of gunfire also struck several parked vehicles in the lot along with the four people who were shot, according to the Hartwell Sun.
All five defendants face the same core set of charges: two counts of felony murder and 11 counts each of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, per Now Georgia. Almond, a 33-year-old Hartwell resident, additionally faces a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Shoemaker, 24, of Hartwell, and Almond were both booked into the Hart County Jail, while Thomas, 25, of Canon, Georgia, is being held in the Stephens County Jail and White, 21, of Anderson, South Carolina, remains in South Carolina custody.
Two Suspects Were Already Behind Bars
According to the GBI, both White and Thomas were already being held on unrelated charges at the time investigators connected them to the Hartwell shooting. Tucker, 31, of Bowman, was arrested September 1, 2026, and booked into the Hart County Jail, while Shoemaker was arrested on August 21, 2026, and Almond was arrested September 1, 2026, the outlet's report notes.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, on Nov 2, 2022, Jarvis Settles, 23, of Hartwell, GA was charged with Aggravated Assault, while Waller and Keese were charged with Conspiracy to Commit Murder related to a separate investigation.
The GBI has not released additional details about what led to the shooting or what specific evidence produced the charges, leaving the motive and the question of who actually pulled the trigger unanswered for now. What is clear is the scale of the effort it took to get here: the agency says the multi-year investigation drew on assistance from 10 municipal, county and state law enforcement agencies spanning five Georgia counties plus Anderson County, South Carolina, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. That roster included sheriff's offices in Anderson, Barrow, Elbert, Hart, Jackson and Stephens counties, along with the Hartwell Police Department, the Elberton Police Department, the Georgia State Patrol and the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, all of whom assisted in the investigation and arrests.
A Bar That Never Reopened
The fallout from the shooting reached Jack’s Bar and Grill almost immediately. Owner Mark Hudson voluntarily surrendered his business license on September 13, 2022, after Hartwell City Manager Jon Herschell notified him that the city was moving to hold a public hearing to revoke the establishment's alcohol license, per the Hartwell Sun's reporting. The venue never reopened.
For a town of roughly 4,500 people situated just seven miles from the South Carolina border, per Census Reporter data cited by Wikipedia, a double homicide outside Jack’s Bar and Grill was not something residents could easily set aside. In September 2024, two years after the shooting and with no arrests yet made, Thornton's family organized a public graveside memorial and balloon release in Hartwell to keep attention on the unsolved case, the Hartwell Sun reported at the time.
What the Charges Could Mean in Court
The stakes for the five defendants are steep. Under Georgia Code § 16-5-1, a felony murder conviction carries a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole, life without parole, or death, according to Justia Law's publication of the statute. Separately, the 11 firearm-during-a-felony counts are punishable by five years under Georgia Code § 16-11-106, and consecutive sentencing is authorized, according to an analysis from Kaufman Law's firm.
The Athens Regional Investigative Office of the GBI is directing the case and continuing to take anonymous tips through state hotlines, according to a report cited by journalist Cody Alcorn. The GBI has stated plainly that the investigation remains active, leaving open the possibility of further developments as prosecutors build their case against all five men nearly four years after the shots were fired outside Jack’s Bar and Grill.
