Police charge Kim Jones' co-worker Randolph Sanders in her ambush slaying; she'd suspected he took funds
Randolph Sanders was worried - his boss was onto him. He knew Kim Jones, his supervisor at Families and Schools Together, an after-school outreach program, suspected he was misappropriating funds, law enforcement sources said Sunday.
Randolph Sanders was worried - his boss was onto him.
He knew Kim Jones, his supervisor at Families and Schools Together, an after-school outreach program, suspected he was misappropriating funds, law enforcement sources said Sunday.
He knew that she had scheduled a meeting for that very morning with Department of Human Services officials, the sources said. He was worried she would report him. He was worried that he would lose his job.
So, law enforcement sources said, he packed a gun in his duffel bag.
He knew her morning routine - that she caught the bus at 12th and Jefferson Streets on her way to work.
And so on Jan. 13, hours before the DHS meeting, sources said Sanders waited in a breezeway until the 56-year-old mother of two made her way to the bus.
He approached her from behind as she leaned against a wall, sources said. As she listened to gospel music on her headphones, they said, he shot her once in the head. Then he calmly walked away.
On Sunday, investigators from the Homicide Task Force arrested Sanders, who gave a videotaped and written confession to detectives, law enforcement sources said.
Jones, the program's director, had hired Sanders as its assistant director in 2012, the sources said, and had recently come to believe that he had misappropriated a significant amount of funds from the program, which is run by the DHS-funded organization Turning Points for Children.
Coworkers and friends had told investigators they were aware of contention between Jones and Sanders in the workplace, one law enforcement source said.
The brutality and apparent calculation of the killing of a woman whose work was dedicated to helping children had shocked the city. Homicide Capt. James Clark, at a press conference held shortly after Jones' death, called her killer a "heartless predator."
Using surveillance tapes, investigators methodically traced the killer's path to and from the crime scene, trawling through hours of footage to search for the man bundled in black clothing, with a cap obscuring his face. Police were at first unable even to see his face - he had "made a point" of not looking at security cameras as he stalked and killed Jones, Clark said.
Eventually, the killer was tracked to an SUV, which investigators were able to link to Sanders, sources said.
DHS spokeswoman Alicia Taylor did not immediately return a call for comment. Turning Points for Children CEO Mike Vogel also did not return a call for comment.
Detectives are now working to determine how much money was allegedly misappropriated from the organization, and whether Jones had shared her suspicions with any supervisors.