Posted: September 18, 2011 - 12:33am
Courtesy of the Chatham County sheriff's officeVernon Michael Rich Jr.
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By Constance Cooper
Police say a Savannah man killed his co-worker’s ex-boyfriend Friday night after giving the woman a ride home to Thunderbolt.
Vernon Michael Rich Jr., a 30-year-old resident of the 400 block of Al Henderson Boulevard, has been charged with murder. Police say he shot 35-year-old Troy Wells to death in Bonaventure Place Townhomes, located off Bonaventure Road.
It was Thunderbolt’s first homicide in nearly a decade.
According to Thunderbolt police, Rich and a female co-worker finished their shifts at Lab Corp, located off Southern Boulevard near Chatham Parkway, about 9 p.m. Rich offered to give the woman a ride home, and they stopped by a store on the way, according to statements given to officers.
When the woman got home, Wells was there, police say. Wells was her ex-boyfriend and was supposed to have moved out that day.
The woman told police Wells walked up behind her as Rich was turning his car around to leave. Wells started arguing with her, demanding to know who Rich is. Wells tried to hit the woman, police say, but she backed away and sprayed him with mace.
That’s when Wells allegedly walked over to Rich’s car and started hitting him as he sat in the driver’s seat. It was 10:47 p.m. The woman said she heard a gunshot.
Police say Rich called 911, admitted to shooting Wells in his upper torso and gave them the gun used to do it.
Thunderbolt Chief Irene Pennington wouldn’t comment Saturday on whether the shooting might have been self-defense except to say the investigation is ongoing.
Rich wasn’t injured in the altercation, according to Thunderbolt Lt. Sean Clayton, who is investigating the case with the help of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department’s forensics and violent crimes units.
The last time someone was killed in Thunderbolt was Nov. 22, 2001, when Hemant Sheth, the 44-year-old owner of Discount Chevron, 2301 Victory Drive, was shot in the chest and head with a handgun as he stood behind the counter of the convenience store.
Police found the man who allegedly killed Sheth three days later, dead under a Georgia Lottery billboard off Interstate 95. Rostan Christopher Pierre, a 31-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. man, shot himself in the face in a car he stole from the Chevron, according to police. His father told officers Pierre was schizophrenic. He was in Savannah for a wedding.
The 2010 U.S. Census count gave Thunderbolt a population of 2,668. Pennington said the most serious crimes she typically deals with are thefts.
“This is usually a very nice, quite community,” Pennington said of Thunderbolt.
But residents of Bonaventure Place, many of whom bought their townhomes brand-new, say crime has been on the rise in their development.
Bonaventure Place includes row after row of nearly identical three-bedroom tonwnhomes, with brightly colored fronts of vinyl siding or stucco. Residents said the development is only about three years old, but mold grows on several banisters.
The original developer of Bonaventure Place pulled out of the project when the economy went bad, residents said, and things haven’t been the same since.
“I just put my place on the market last week because of everything that’s been going on in the neighborhood,” said Thomas Powers, who lives in a Bonaventure Place townhome with his wife and toddler.
“It’s pretty scary,” Powers said of the homicide.
Thunderbolt Mayor Anna Maria Thomas said she’s reassuring residents startled by the killing that it was an isolated, domestic incident, and officers are on top of the case.
“The police are taking care of it, and we’re dealing with it,” Thomas said.
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