COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — A College Park, Ga. police officer talked to Action News Jax’s Atlanta station, WSB-TV, about his run-in with an accused serial killer and how close he came to dying.
Edward Cherry of Jacksonville is accused murderer. He pleaded guilty to four different cases, including murder, in Fulton County, Georgia.
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Clayton County, Ga. Chief Assistant District Attorney Bonnie Smith said Cherry is indicted for two 2020 murders in Clayton County for which he has pleaded not guilty.
The trial for those crimes has been set for August.
Smith said that Cherry is a suspect in two murders in or near Jacksonville, and in one of them, the victim was his grandmother.
Currently, there are no charges in the Jacksonville cases.
College Park police Lt. Charles Landrum said he has often thought about how close he came to becoming one of the list of murder victims allegedly tied to Cherry.
“Where did he shoot you?” WSB Reporter Mark Winne asked Landrum.
“In the neck, right here,” he responded. “When I called out that I’d been hit I called out for Jesus to protect me and when I saw that I literally felt him come down all around me. I tell people not with me, not beside me, but in somewhere I cannot describe.”
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Landrum said a license plate reader alerted College Park police that a car tied to a homicide case was in their jurisdiction.
He chased the car and an instant before Landrum rammed the car for the second time, Cherry shot him in the neck, just millimeters away from his carotid artery.
Landrum said the collision knocked the gun out of Cherry’s hand and out of the car.
“If he had still had that gun with me holding with my gun hand holding the blood back,” Landrum said. “He might’ve got over on me.”
“Mr. Cherry last week pled guilty to four cases, the lead case being a murder case here from a jail stabbing at the Fulton County Jail,” Adam Abbate, the lead prosecutor on Cherry’s Fulton County cases said.
Abbate said on March 5, Cherry pleaded guilty to four Fulton County indictments, including the 2024 jail stabbing of Leonard Fortner and the aggravated assault on Landrum.
Abbate said Cherry also pleaded guilty to a 2022 non-fatal jail stabbing and a 2020 kidnapping and armed robbery.
“Judge Robert McBurney sentenced Mr. Cherry for all four of his cases for a total sentence of life plus 15 years,” Abbate said.
“We hope that with the sentence it will provide some closure for these victims and it is the beginning of justice for society,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said.
A spokesperson said that concerning the Clayton County case, “The Clayton Public Defender Office represents Mr. Cherry. Their attorneys are preparing a strong, effective defense on his behalf.”
The Fourth Circuit State’s Attorney’s Office in Florida said, “We understand the developments that have taken place in Georgia and will provide updates on any Jacksonville cases when they become publicly available.”
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