TARGETS OF PROBE HAVE DRUG PASTS

All Men Have Prior Convictions For Narcotics Sales

Three men who were targets of the Metro Narcotics Task Force investigation
that ultimately led to the roadside shooting death of Kenneth Brown Walker
by a sheriff's deputy are no strangers to the drug trade.

Metro officers were focused Wednesday on a suspected drug operation
involving crack cocaine sales made from a unit of Northwoods Apartments,
according to Metro Agent Jonnie Ellerbee. About 7 p.m., an informant called
the apartment unit and ordered 4 ounces of crack from "Bo-Jack," but was
told no drugs were available because "all they had was walking out the door
right now," the agent testified Thursday in Columbus Recorder's Court.

Agents watching the apartment saw a man later identified as Michael Andre
Powell, 31, leave the apartment as those words were recorded by the
informant. Officers followed Powell to a Popeyes restaurant on Wynnton
Road, where they found more than $6,000 worth of crack cocaine in his
vehicle, Ellerbee testified.

Powell's previous convictions include a March 8, 1999, plea of guilty to
sale of cocaine, which resulted in a sentence of three years in prison
followed by three years on probation, according to Muscogee Superior Court
records. He was released on parole Sept. 12, 1999. Powell also had been
previously sentenced to three years on probation and fined $300 on Sept.
20, 1991, for possessing cocaine, but the conviction was removed from his
record under the Georgia First Offender Act.

While agents were following and later arresting Powell, other agents
remained at the apartment complex, where the informant said the two men
remaining in the apartment were waiting for a supplier to bring more drugs,
according to Ellerbee. The drugs would arrive in a GMC Yukon, the informant
was told.

When a gray Yukon left the apartment complex, officers followed the vehicle
and later stopped it along Interstate 185, ordering its occupants out of
the SUV and onto the ground. It was during the moments following that stop
that Walker was shot by a Muscogee County sheriff's deputy.

About 10:50 p.m., Metro agents armed with a search warrant raided Apartment
3-G of Northside Apartments. Inside they found Thomas Leon Randall, 33, and
Darren Lamont Jackson, 33, according to Ellerbee. They also found a pistol,
drugs and related items.

Powell, Randall and Jackson were charged with trafficking cocaine, with
Randall and Jackson also charged with possession of a firearm by convicted
felons. Jackson also is charged with possession of a firearm during the
commission of a crime.

Randall was convicted of selling cocaine in March 1991 and sentenced to two
years in prison, followed by three years on probation. He was again
convicted in September 1997 of possession of marijuana with intent to
distribute.

Jackson was convicted of selling cocaine and possessing cocaine in October
1993, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three
years on probation. An August 1995 conviction for selling cocaine resulted
in a sentence of four years in prison and three years on probation, but he
was granted permission to remain free until required to report to prison.
When he did not report, warrants for his arrest were issued on Sept. 18,
1995, and Sept. 18, 1996.

After the preliminary hearing in Recorder's Court, Powell and Jackson were
ordered held without bond, while Randall was released on bonds totaling
$15,000.