An Alabama middle school assistant principal has been charged with murder over the torture and slaying of three people more than a decade ago.
Keante Harris, 45, and three other men were nabbed last week over the cold-case triple murders that unfolded in Union City, Georgia, back in January 2013, authorities said.
The 11-year hunt for the killers kicked off when the bodies of the three victims were discovered dumped in an abandoned car on an exit ramp on the I-85 interstate in Fulton County.
The victims — Cheryl Colquitt-Thompson, 32, Quinones King, 33, and Rodney Cottrell, 43 — had all been “lured” to a home and forced inside at gunpoint, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office said.
They were then tortured, killed and stuffed inside the 2010 Dodge Charger, the sheriff’s office added.
The case went unsolved until Harris and the others — Kenneth Thompson, Kevin Harris and Darrell Harris — were fingered as suspects and taken into custody across three different states last week, according to authorities. It wasn’t immediately clear if the three Harrises were related.
All four men were hit with three counts each of malice murder, the sheriff’s office said.
Harris, an assistant principal at McAdory Middle School in Birmingham, was placed on administrative leave immediately after the charges came down, school officials said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long Harris has been an assistant principal, but his social media accounts indicate he started working with Jefferson County Schools in 2018 and has been working as an educator since 2006, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“We have been made aware that Mr Keante Harris was arrested Wednesday afternoon. At this time, we still are gathering facts about the specifics of this situation,” Jefferson County Schools superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said in a statement.
“However, early indications are that the charges are not related to this individual’s employment with Jefferson County Schools. Per standard procedure, Mr Harris has been placed on paid administrative leave. As more facts become available, we will act according to our district’s policy.”
Authorities haven’t disclosed any details on how Harris or the other three suspects are tied to the murders.
