Rape suspect killed, maybe by 'vigilante'

9-5-2000 Georgia: (SEE UPDATE)

Police say Julius Grant was shot dead less than two hours after raping a teenage girl Monday.

The 17-year-old girl was hospitalized after being raped about noon in an abandoned house on Wesley Avenue in the Edgewood neighborhood, said Atlanta police homicide Sgt. Keith Meadows.

At 1:52 p.m., Grant, 29, was shot four times in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Hutchinson Street, three blocks from the rape scene. The bullets pierced his lungs. He died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

It being Labor Day, some residents were outside at the time, barbecuing chicken. But when police arrived, everyone said they didn't see a thing, said Atlanta homicide Detective Steve Walden.

Walden made no arrests Monday. He said he believes someone who knew the girl killed Grant in an act of vigilantism. But he had no suspects.

An investigator took a Polaroid photo of Grant's bloody face and police showed it to the rape victim. She identified Grant as the rapist, Walden said. She knew Grant by name.

Grant was arrested for rape in 1998. His criminal record also includes arrests for armed robbery, theft and felony obstruction for fighting with police, according to Atlanta police records. All those arrests came within a five-year period. But they were not enough to keep him off the street. His record of convictions was not available Monday because courts were closed for the holiday.

"If he raped that little girl, he got what he deserved," Edgewood resident Latrice Turner, 25, said as she stood next to the parking lot where yellow crime scene tape marked the spot where Grant was shot.

A girl wearing a diaper tugged on the crime scene tape. Turner shook her head and watched her chicken cooking on an outdoor grill. She said she wasn't there at the time of the shooting.

Linda Jones stopped eating when she heard the news about Grant's death.

"It's a shame he got killed," Jones said. "But it's even sadder he raped somebody." ..more.. by Joshua B. Good - Staff

---

Accused Vigilante Killer Surrenders.
9-13-2000 Georgia:

ATLANTA -- A citywide manhunt for an accused vigilante ended this morning when the young man marched into police headquarters and surrendered on charges of murdering the man who had allegedly raped his teenage friend.

Kelvin Demarcus Bridges, 19, accompanied by an attorney, made no statement when he surrendered to Atlanta police shortly after 10:30 a.m., said Officer John Quigley, a police spokesman.

Authorities say Bridges, who has a history of arrests for gun charges, was seeking revenge Sept. 4 when he tracked down Julius Grant and shot him in broad daylight.

Grant's death came less than two hours after he had allegedly grabbed a 17-year-old girl off the street in Atlanta's tough Edgewood neighborhood, dragged her to an abandoned house and raped her, police said.

Rough justice?

The girl escaped and told her family and police about her ordeal, authorities said. She was later able to identify Grant as her attacker, police said.

While police were taking her statement at a nearby hospital, authorities say, Bridges armed himself with a handgun and set out for revenge.

Investigators said Bridges found Grant, 29, just a few blocks from the abandoned house where the girl had been raped. He allegedly fired two bullets into the man at point-blank range and fled, police said. Grant died at the scene.

Almost from the beginning, detectives suspected that the slaying was motivated by revenge. But investigators say they got little help from the neighborhood, where some believed that Grant's death could be chalked up to a kind of rough justice.

Publicity flushes out suspect

Within a week of the slaying, authorities had gathered enough evidence to have a warrant issued charging Bridges with murder, investigators said.

On Tuesday, after a week of quiet and fruitless searches for Bridges, police publicly identified him as their chief suspect in the case, hoping that pressure from the media would help convince him to surrender.

This morning, just hours after news reports identifying Bridges as a suspect hit the streets, the young man surrendered, authorities said.

Bail information on Bridges was not immediately available. by By Seamus McGraw, APBnews.com