A former University of Georgia soccer player has been identified as a suspect in the March 19, 2021 murder of RaceTrac station employee Elijah Wood, Oconee County Sheriff James Hale announced Wednesday.
The sheriff identified the suspect as Ahkil Crumpton of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The sheriff said Crumpton played football for UGA in 2017 and 2018 and was a student at UGA until 2021. Crumpton’s UGA football profile reported that he was a junior collegiate transfer who played 24 games for the Bulldogs as a wide receiver, according to website GeorgiaDogs.com.
“We got him,” Hale wrote on his Facebook page nearly a year after the 23-year-old Watkinsville man was killed.
Background: Oconee County RaceTrac shooting surveillance video released
Elijah Wood Shoots Death: Who Killed Elijah Wood? The murder of a RaceTrac employee remains a mystery 2 months later
Crumpton was arrested Wednesday and is in a Philadelphia jail, according to Hale.
The case got its breakthrough when the Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau and the FBI located and matched a gun’s cartridge case that matched a cartridge case found at the RaceTrac station, according to the sheriff’s report.
That breach occurred on February 15, when the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network database revealed the match between the two cartridge cases.
Details of how this cartridge case was obtained in Philadelphia have not been released. However, the sheriff said that the gun used in Wood’s murder was also used in a Philadelphia murder case that took place some time after Wood was murdered in Georgia.
A spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department said Wednesday it could not release any information about the murder because no arrests had been made.
Hale said he will hold a press conference Thursday to provide more details about the case.
“I’m glad that phase is over and we’ve taken him into custody. Now we can proceed to the next phase of his indictment,” the sheriff said.
The story goes on
Hale said investigators in his office worked alongside federal and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police to establish a connection between Philadelphia and Athens.
“Over the past year, we have seen the pain, anguish, and frustration this murder has brought to Elijah’s family, friends, and our community,” the sheriff said of a case that earned a $50,000 reward for information that led to the identity of the killer.
Tripp Lemmonds, Wood’s brother-in-law, said Wednesday that the family had been informed earlier that a suspect had been identified.
“We’re relieved he was caught, and we’re so grateful to the sheriff and his investigative team, the Oconee community, and the public for not abandoning Elijah’s case,” said Lemmonds, who is married to Wood’s twin sister. Maria.
“She has been in tears since we learned that an arrest would be made. She’s so relieved,” Lemmonds said.
Lemmonds said some of the previous suspicions — based on the suspect’s movements and clothing seen in crime scene videos — were that he was a football player, and it turned out to be true.
“But I didn’t expect him to play for the University of Georgia,” said Lemmonds.
This article originally appeared in Athens Banner-Herald: Elijah Wood Shooting: Former UGA Football Player Akhil Crumpton Arrested
