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 Former NBA player, Javaris Crittenton, is a wanted man ... in connection with the shooting death of a 23-year-old mother last Friday (August 19) in Atlanta.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the 23-year-old basketball player fired gunshots from a black SUV last week, after spotting a person he believed robbed him months earlier.
Instead, Jullian Jones, a mother of four, was struck in the hip and died after surgery. Police do not believe she was the intended target.
Crittenton now faces a murder charge, and has been at large since the shooting.
"It appears Mr. Crittenton observed who he thought was the perpetrator walking down the street," Major Keith Meadows told the AJC. "It so happens Miss Jones was walking down the street at the same time."
Two men were walking with Jones, said the report, but fled and were not injured. Investigators now believe one of those men was the intended target.
Police believe Crittenton was seeking retaliation after being robbed of his jewelry in late April, which he reported to police.
At press time, Crittenton was not in custody and is believed to be in the greater Los Angeles area. Atlanta detectives are working with the FBI to take him into custody. "Hopefully, we'll make those arrangements this evening for him to turn himself in," Meadows said.
Crittenton was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft, where he played a limited role in just 22 games. He was traded his rookie year to the Memphis Grizzlies, in a rade that sent Pau Gasol to the Lakers.
Crittenton ended up on Washington Wizards, where he was at the center of a controversy involving teammate Gilbert Arenas in December 2009 in which borh players pulled guns on each other in the team's locker room.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of probation on a misdemeanor gun possession charge, was fined and suspended for the rest of the NBA season. After the season ended, the Wizards opted to not re-sign him.
Late last year, the Charlotte Bobcats signed Crittenton to a non-guaranteed contract, but he was waived in October. At joined the NBA D-League's Dakota Wizards.
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