Man arrested in death of correctional officer near Atlanta

LITHONIA, Ga. (AP) — Police on Friday arrested a man in the shooting death of a correctional officer outside a jail in an Atlanta suburb.

Gwinnett County police said in a news release that 22-year-old Yahya Abdulkadir of Dacula was arrested at around 1:30 p.m. Friday. He’s charged with felony murder and aggravated assault in the killing of Gwinnett County correctional officer Scott Riner.

Detectives who had been working the case since early Tuesday when Riner was found dead identified Abdulkadir as a suspect and arrested him without incident in Lithonia, the release says. He’ll be brought back to Gwinnett County and booked into the jail there.

It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could comment on the charges.

Gwinnett County police officers responded about 6:20 a.m. Tuesday to a “person shot” call at the county correctional complex in Lawrenceville. They found 59-year-old Riner in the parking lot outside the jail suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a police news release.

Riner had worked at the correctional complex for more than 10 years, police said.

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