Roderick King Collage.jpg

Roderick Derrell King

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A dropped cell phone at the scene of a crime helped lead authorities to a suspected killer who they say carried out a three-city spree in Jefferson County one week ago today and fatally shot a customer at Jack's in Pleasant Grove.

Witnesses to a violent holdup on Jan. 13 watched as the gunman, armed with an AK-47 type rifle, accidentally left behind clues that would help to catch him within a matter of hours, according to an affidavit made public in court records this week.

Responding officers at a robbery in Hueytown looked at the dropped cell phone, according to records, and saw on the locked screen a picture of a man they recognized and identified as 19-year-old Roderick Derrell King. They issued a lookout bulletin for King- who already was awaiting trial on a 2014 armed robbery case - and he was later captured by Birmingham police.

When King, of Dolomite, was taken into custody, police found a live 7.62 x 39 mm round in his back pocket, the same make, caliber and type of ammunition recovered from Jack's, where 21-year-old Ashton Blake Roberts was fatally shot in the chest while waiting in line to order food.

King is charged with capital murder in fatal shooting and robbery at Jack's and first-degree robbery in the armed holdup at Papa Murphy's in Hueytown. He also remains the lead suspect in a robbery at a fast-food restaurant in Fairfield as well.

His preliminary hearing is set for Monday, Jan. 25, at the courthouse in Bessemer.

Roberts was standing in line at Jack's that Wednesday night when police say King, brandishing a rifle, stormed the Park Road restaurant and ordered everyone inside to the floor. Roberts, it appears, froze and hesitated, and was shot in the chest.

King then turned the gun toward a teenage cashier and demanded money. He fled with an undetermined amount of cash. The entire robbery took about 90 seconds, and it was only about 11 seconds from the time King entered the restaurant until the time police say he shot Roberts.

"He decided to go out on an ultra-violent crime spree. It started in Fairfield, went through Hueytown and ended up in Pleasant Grove and it ruined some peoples' lives,'' Pleasant Grove Lt. Danny Reid said in a previous interview. "This guy has zero remorse. He doesn't care."

"After interviewing him, it is plain to me that he is an individual who values no one's life but his own and no dollar amount is too small for him to take that life,'' Reid said. "To me, it's worth staying up 36 hours and doing everything we can to put this menace, this monster in jail. It doesn't give this family their child back, but hopefully it gives them something."

Roberts was buried Tuesday in the Garden of Good Shepherd at Crestview Memorial Gardens in Adamsville.

Investigators say prior to the Jack's holdup, King first robbed the Burger King in Fairfield about 7:30 p.m. where he fired four or five rounds while inside the restaurant. A customer fired one shot at King before the suspect fled the restaurant. Fairfield police Chief Leon Davis said their investigation is ongoing, and King remains their prime suspect.

The holdup at the Papa Murphy's in Hueytown happened about 8 p.m. No shots were fired, and no one was injured.

From there King went to Jack's, police said. Roberts was shot at 8:40 p.m., and pronounced dead on the scene at 9 p.m.

Multiple agencies then launched a manhunt for the suspect. Reid said they were quickly able to identify King as the potential shooter, and knew what he was driving. They sent out a detailed lookout bulletin to surrounding police agencies, and Birmingham police then pulled over King when they spotted him and a friend driving near Legion Field.

Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff Assistant District Attorney Bill Veitch said shortly after King's arrest that it was gratifying to know a killer is off the streets and held without bond. "I am very sad for the family of the young man shot and killed in Pleasant Grove,'' Veitch said. "This is happening to frequently. I wish I had an easy answer to the problem of young men robbing and killing others, but I don't."