‘He wanted money. I wanted my life’: Clerk shares nightmare encounter with murder suspect
WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Even with a mass murder suspect behind bars, a store clerk in Burke County is haunted by how close she came to dying during an encounter with him this week.
James Drayton – accused of killing five people Sunday in South Carolina – was captured early Monday after robbing a convenience store in Burke County, authorities say.
He’s been denied bond in Georgia and faces a return to Spartanburg County, S.C., to face murder charges there.
A clerk at Taylor Bros. X-press outside Waynesboro he says her life flashed before her eyes when a gun was pointed at her during the robbery – something that happened just days after her stepson was shot dead at another convenience store.
“To see that gun at me, I just seen my life right before me,” Furrica Harden said. “I just thank God, and I’m still living.”
Harden says Monday started as normal as it could be.
“It was a regular typical morning when I walked in. Noticed that the delivery guy was here, Coca-Cola, to deliver the drinks and stuff like that. So I let him in,” she said.
The store opens at 5:30 a.m., but workers arrive an hour earlier. Before she could even turn around to lock the door after letting in the delivery man, she had a gun in her face.
“It happened so fast. Within five minutes, I noticed somebody in my face with a mask with a gun. When I see the gun, the first thing I can say is, ‘Don’t kill me. I just buried my son yesterday,’” said Harden.
Her stepson, Zayquantes Jones, was shot and killed at the Smart Grocery near the Landings Apartments in Augusta less than two weeks ago.
Fearing for her life and unaware she was face-to-face with an accused mass murderer, she gave him what he asked for.
“Nothing in that store was worth more than in my life. Not even the $200 that he took. It’s not worth more than my life,” she said.
After he ran off, she called 911.
“He walked out calmly. I locked the door and called 911. Within seconds, they had him in Waynesboro,” said Harden.
He was arrested following a police chase after he wrecked a car he stole after Sunday’s shootings at a drug house on Bobo Drive in Inman, S.C., according to authorities.
But even with Drayton behind bars at the Burke County Detention Center, Harden is left with nightmares.
“Every time I try to close my eyes, I still see his mask. I still see this gun. I’m having dreams. I’m shaken up,” she said.
“I will just be glad that he was able to be caught, five families got closure, and nobody else got hurt. I didn’t get hurt in the process of trying to get him this money because he still could have shot me, too,” she said.
Harden says she continues to pray for better days in the hope she will return home each night to her husband and two children. Her goal is to focus on the good days to come.
“He wanted money,” she said. “I wanted my life.”
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