UPDATE #2: Multi-agency effort leads to arrest of S.C. murder suspect in Gainesville

11:15 A.M. FRIDAY UPDATE:

GAINESVILLE POLICE DEPT. NEWS RELEASE:

“…43 year old William Barney Drummond was arrested on February 13, 2025 by the Gainesville Police Department. Drummond was taken into custody without incident. A firearm along with other weapons, narcotics and counterfeit cash was discovered on Drummond’s person during his arrest.

Gainesville Police, along with its team from the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, began working with Oconee County Investigators in South Carolina earlier in the day. Officials believed Drummond possibly absconded to Gainesville, Georgia after the murder. Drummond was tracked midday along Queen City Parkway, where he was walking along the roadway.

Drummond remains in the Hall County Jail awaiting extradition to South Carolina.”

10:00 A.M. FRIDAY UPDATE:

The Oconee County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that Drummond was arrested by Gainesville Police but provided no details surrounding the arrest and Gainesville Police have not responded to requests for that information.

EARLIER STORY. POSTED 7:30 A.M. FRIDAY:

A man wanted for murder in connection with a fatal hit-and-run in South Carolina has been arrested in Gainesville. That’s according to WYFF-TV in Greenville, S.C.

43-year-old William Barney Drummond of Westminster was wanted for the Monday hit-and-run death of a 34-year-old pedestrian. Hall County Jail records show that Drummond was booked Thursday. The report by WYFF says he was arrested by Gainesville Police.

A lookout for Drummond by the Oconee County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office had said that Drummond was considered armed and dangerous.

Hall County Jail records list several charges against him in addition to a “hold for another state.” Those charges are:

*FORGERY IN THE FIRST DEGREE

*POSSESSION OF METH

*HEROIN POSSESSION

*POSSESSION AND USE OF DRUG-RELATED OBJECTS

*POSSESSION OF A FIREARM/KNIFE IN THE COMMISSION OF A CRIME

*POSSESSION OF A FIREARM BY A CONVICTED FELON

The circumstances surrounding Drummond’s capture were not known early Friday.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a developing story and will be update when more information becomes available.)

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.