Athens man captured after shooting woman in Golden Pantry parking lot

A man who shot a woman in the Golden Pantry parking lot on Hwy. 29 South in Hull Oct. 27 was taken into custody later that day without incident, according to Investigator Jimmy Patton.

Steven Michael Harper, 42, of Athens, was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated battery FVA, receipt, possession or transfer of a firearm by a convicted felon or felony first offender and failure to appear.

Patton said Harper’s vehicle was tracked to Anderson SC, where it was located and while officials were there, they received a call that Harper was traveling as a passenger in an SUV in Elberton.

Elberton PD performed a traffic stop on the vehicle and took Harper into custody without incident.

The 39-year-old female employee was shot in the leg at least once by Harper about 7:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the store.

Harper fled in a blue 1980s model Chevrolet pickup onto Norwood Road toward Hwy. 106.

The victim was transported to Athens Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries, according to Patton.

The assailant and the victim were or had been in a domestic relationship. Harper was armed with a handgun that fired shotgun type rounds, Patton noted. Law enforcement issued a “be on the lookout” (BOLO) for surrounding areas.

Patton said officers were aware of Harper stalking the victim and had had the store under surveillance the night before. He said officers had just left the area about 20 minutes before the shooting happened.

According to an incident report, earlier in the night Deputy Joe McGuffin was dispatched to the store after the manager called to say that her employee (victim) was being stalked by Harper. She told McGuffin Harper called the store “constantly” asking for the victim. She said he had also been coming to the store at all hours, scaring both employees and customers. She said that night he had called several times to say he was “watching them.”

When the clerk locked the doors to go to the restroom, Harper allegedly called asking when she was going to unlock the doors.

The manager supplied McGuffin with Harper’s information and McGuffin discovered Harper had several outstanding warrants as well as an invalid license.

The manager reported that Harper was seen driving a late 70s model Ford truck. The tag number for the truck came back to an Elberton man.

McGuffin and another officer canvassed the area to no avail. A customer told officers that he had seen Harper in the truck about 1:45 a.m. the previous morning in the parking lot of the Shell station diagonally across the road from the Golden Pantry with his headlights facing the store.

McGuffin was called back to the Golden Pantry about 3:40 a.m. to meet with the manager again. She said that Harper had called repeatedly over the last several minutes. She said she put the phone on speaker and others heard him say he would “get her too” and that he called her vulgar names.

McGuffin noted that Harper called three more times while he was there and began cursing the manager when she would not get the victim on the phone.

The victim told McGuffin she did not know where Harper might be, saying he could be “anywhere” but that he could be “back in Elberton on Sweet City Road.”

Deputies continued to monitor the area until just before the shooting, according to the report.

Patton said Harper has been denied bond by the magistrate court.