This browser does not support the Video element.
GAINESVILLE, Ga. - Gainesville police are searching for a gunman they are describing as armed and dangerous after a Friday night murder.
The victim’s family said they knew the alleged killer well. Gainesville police said 30-year-old Darvis Bledson, also known as Tookie, as armed and dangerous.
They said he's the one who pulled the trigger that killed 30-year-old Terry Maddox Friday night outside the old Sparkles nightclub. Now police are asking anyone with information to give them a call.
“One individual lost his life as a result of this shooting and the last thing we want is anyone else to lose their life,” said Sgt. Kevin Holbrook, with the Gainesville Police Department.
Landa Maddox, the mother of the victim said Bledson, ‘Tookie’ was a family friend for years.
“I knew him as a child from the projects when we lived there he lived right around the corner,” said Landa Maddox.
She said her family took in Darvis Bledson, who picked up the nick name Tookie as a teenager. Maddox said Bledson's parents died and he found a new home with her family. Over the years she said Bledson had been in and out of trouble but she never imagined he'd be charged with the murder of her son.
“I don't know why. I'm dumbfounded right now because I don't understand and I want to ask him, but I sent him a text in messenger but I didn't want to go to Facebook,” said Maddox.
She said she reached out to Bledson via social media but never heard back. Her son she said was growing in his musical world of recording hip hop music before he was gunned down. She's hoping the man accused of his murder turns himself in before he's cornered. She made a direct appeal to him to turn himself in.
“Don't let them find you because if the police find you they're considering you armed and dangerous baby. Don’t let that happen to you and my feelings for you I forgive you son, I love you like you're my own son,” said Maddox
Gainesville police are asking anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts of Darvis Bledson to give them a call. They said this is a Crime Stoppers case with a potential reward of $2,000 and tippers can remain anonymous.