An 18-year-old man who is now in jail in Catoosa County is suspected of killing a 19-year-old Charles Holsey in Chattanooga on Monday, sources say.
Chattanooga police are in the process of bringing Briston Smith from the North Georgia jail back to Chattanooga to face charges in the Holsey's death.
Briston SmithSmith is currently in jail in Catoosa on three drug charges: possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and possession of tools for the commission of a crime, according to Catoosa County records.
Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk said that his deputies initiated contact with Smith at Chattanooga police's request because he was a suspect in the homicide, and the drug charges came out of what deputies discovered when they contacted Smith.
Investigators believe Holsey was shot once after he went to 310 Sylvan St. for a drug deal and got into a fight around 8:45 p.m. Monday.
The teenager then got into a vehicle with another person and fled the scene of the shooting, police said. But Holsey made it only about a third of a mile before his vehicle crashed into another vehicle at 709 N. Market St.
Emergency responders took Holsey to the hospital, where he died from the gunshot wound.
Holsey is the fourth person in Chattanooga to be shot and killed so far this year. The teenager studied at Berry College in Georgia for a year, from fall of 2013 until fall of 2014, a spokeswoman at the college said. He withdrew from the school in December 2014.