MARIANNA — Gun powder lingered in the cab of the truck as Travis Martin Locke and his passenger, Patrick Register, sped off from Auburn Lane in Marianna, bullet holes in the windshield and both men shot in the midst of an ambush.
Locke, who had been shot in his right arm and abdomen, raced to Grand Ridge Sunday morning for help at the home of Register’s mother. Register also suffered a gunshot wound. One of the assailants had lost his shoe in Locke’s 2002 Ford F-150 when he jumped into the window of the truck wearing a bandana on his face and brandishing a revolver. Locke forced the gun barrel against the dash, causing it to discharge through the windshield, as another man fired into the truck from outside.
Register’s mother called authorities after the two arrived. Register, 26, stopped responding shortly after the deputy arrived and began performing CPR. He died shortly after at about 2 a.m. Sunday. Locke, 27, was treated and released for his injuries. Jackson County deputies have arrested four people in connection with the shooting and Register’s death, attributing both to a drug deal turned ambush.
Locke initially told officers he and Register, both men from Sneads, stopped at the intersection of Dellwood and Cypress Road to assist a lady having car troubles when two armed men attacked them. Locke revised his story and copped that he and Register arraigned to meet Dayeisha Canika Curry to purchase 23 boxes of pseudaphedrine to make methamphetamine, according to police reports.
According to documents released Friday, this is what happened:
Locke pulled the truck near Curry’s vehicle at an intersection of Auburn Lane. As she walked around the front of the truck toward Locke’s window, Register spotted a man approaching his open passenger window.
“Go, go, go! He’s got a gun,” Register yelled to Locke.
The two sped off, but the assailant had jumped into the window with the revolver, Locke told police. He pushed the gun barrel onto the dashboard but could also hear gunshots coming from a second shooter outside the car. Before forcing him back out the window, in the midst of the struggle, the man’s bandana came down from around his nose and Locke got a look at his face, he told police.
One of his shoes also came off inside the truck, Locke said.
Deputies matched the shoe print to those at the scene of the shooting. They later spotted Curry driving through Marianna. Jordan Taishon Davis and Christopher Michal Laster were passengers in her car when police stopped her, police reported.
The three were arrested on charges of principal to murder and principal to attempted murder. Police believed Davis was shooting from outside the car and a fourth suspect, identified Thursday as 24-year-old Laderious Corbitt Pittman, was the man who gained entry to the truck.
Pittman was arrested and also charged with an open count of murder Thursday after officers obtained a warrant to track his cellphone data, which placed him in the area and near the time of the shooting. Authorities also released information that a text from Curry to Pittman’s asking him to accompany her and others to the “spot,” according to arrest records.