An Atlanta man was arrested on Friday and charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of actor Thomas Jefferson Byrd.
Investigators, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said they were able to identify a suspect by following up on evidence and anonymous tips they had received, ultimately landing them on 30-year-old Antonio Demetrice Rhynes. While warrants for his arrest were issued on Wednesday, he wasn't taken into custody until early Friday morning at Royal Oaks Apartments on North Camp Creek Parkway.
According to publicly available records from Fulton County Jail—where Rhynes is expected to be booked after being arrested in the fatal shooting of Byrd—his previous record includes arrests in connection with unrelated incidents on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and armed robbery dating back to 2007.
Spike Lee, a frequent collaborator of Byrd's, remembered his friend and fellow artist in a series of Instagram posts earlier this month. He also helped set up a GoFundMe page raising money for funeral expenses.
"I'm so sad to announce the tragic murder of our beloved brother Thomas Jefferson Byrd last night In Atlanta,Georgia," Lee said in one post including a photo of Byrd as the character Errol Barnes from the 1995 crime drama Clockers. "Tom is my guy."
Byrd appeared in a number of Spike Lee joints including Get on the Bus, Chi-Raq, Bamboozled, He Got Game, and more. He also received a Tony nomination for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
