Suspect in Georgia police officer killing captured

EASTMAN, GA (WALB) - Officials confirm the man wanted for fatally shooting a Georgia police officer is in custody.

Royheem Delshawn Deeds, 24, was captured in north Florida overnight. He was booked into the Nassau County Jail just before 3 a.m., according to an inmate search with the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.

Deeds was wanted for murder in the shooting death of 31-year-old Officer Tim Smith in Eastman on Saturday, the GBI released in a statement Sunday.

Dodge County 911 put out a call at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday for officers to investigate suspicious activity near the intersection of Smith and Main Street in Eastman, Georgia.

When Officer Smith arrived on the scene, he encountered a subject on the street.

The subject shot Officer Smith and escaped as soon as he exited his vehicle.

Officer Smith returned gunfire but the suspect, later identified as Deeds, fled the scene.

Officer Smith was sent to Dodge Co. Hospital where he later died of his injuries.

Smith, a 2009 graduate of the ABAC police academy, joined the Eastman Police Department in 2011.

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