Georgia Police Charge 4 With Murder in 15-Year-Old Austin Payne's Death

Q: Who was the person seen jumping from the window of the abandoned Albany apartment just minutes before Austin Payne's tragic final phone call?

It has not been publicly identified. The reporting says surveillance footage captured “a person wearing a hoodie and shorts” jumping from a window of the abandoned Albany apartment at about 7:58 p.m., roughly five minutes before Austin Payne called his mother at around 8:03 p.m. saying he had been shot and needed help. Authorities later charged four people in Payne’s killing — Detravion Parker, 22, Jansquincey Donaldson, 15, Omari Marion, 15, and Adarious Wallace, 16 — but the available police and news accounts do not say which, if any, of them was the person seen leaving through the window. Investigators have cited the footage as part of the timeline, not as a public identification.

Q: How did a teenage boy's social media post about a handgun turn a Halloween night out into a deadly, targeted robbery?

Investigators believe Austin Payne was likely singled out after he posted a handgun on social media, which may have signaled to others that he was carrying a weapon worth stealing. According to Albany police and witness accounts, Payne was walking with others Halloween night along a cut-through between Sands Drive and Cameo Lane when armed suspects approached the group, demanded their belongings and opened fire. Witnesses told investigators the robbery attempt may have been aimed specifically at taking the handgun Payne had recently displayed online. Police used surveillance video, cellphone records, witness statements and physical evidence to build that theory. Video reportedly showed six people heading toward the abandoned apartment on Cameo Lane around 7:35 p.m. and someone jumping from a window around 7:58 p.m. Phone records show Payne called his mother around 8:03 p.m. to say he had been shot and needed help. Investigators also recovered seven 9mm shell casings near the path and apartment. Authorities have not said the social media post was the sole motive, and the case remains active. But the evidence released so far indicates the post may have turned Payne into a robbery target, escalating what began as a Halloween outing into a deadly shooting. Four suspects — 22-year-old Detravion Parker and teenagers Jansquincey Donaldson, Omari Marion and Adarious Wallace — have been charged with murder.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Nov 8

Four suspects — a 22-year-old man, two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old — were charged with murder in the shooting death of Austin Payne, 15, in Albany, Georgia.
Police found Payne dead in an abandoned home on Cameo Lane on Nov. 1 after his mother tracked his cellphone when he did not return home on Halloween; Chief Michael Persley said Payne called her after he was shot.
Investigators used surveillance footage, cellphone records and witness statements to piece together the case, with witnesses saying armed people approached Payne's group, demanded belongings and opened fire.
WALB reported Payne may have been targeted in an attempted robbery tied to a handgun he had recently shown on social media, while police asked anyone with additional information to contact investigators.