Police say the suspect was released the night of the shooting and later re-arrested after months of warrants, interviews and testing.
LOGANVILLE, GA — A man has been arrested and charged in the fatal shooting of a 62-year-old CVS employee who was attacked as she arrived for work in Loganville last fall, ending a five-month investigation that police said required dozens of interviews, search warrants and forensic testing.
Kimberly Whaley’s killing shook this east metro Atlanta city in November and left residents wondering how a longtime pharmacy worker could be shot outside the store where she had worked for years. On Monday, Loganville police said they had charged Evander Derrell Choates with felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and pointing a pistol at another person. Authorities said the case is still active, no motive has been announced, and investigators do not believe Whaley and the suspect knew each other.
Police say Whaley was shot on Nov. 14, 2025, in the parking lot of the CVS at Atlanta Highway and Conyers Road as she was going in for her shift. Officers found her with a gunshot wound to the head, and she was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition. She later died from her injuries. In the weeks that followed, details were scarce, a sign of how tightly investigators were holding the case. By early December, local and federal agencies, including the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, Monroe police and the U.S. Secret Service, had joined the work. Police Chief Dick Lowry said then that limited information was being released on purpose to protect the case, and on Monday he said detectives had spent months building evidence they could take to court.
Lowry said officers had detained the suspected gunman the night of the shooting but were forced to release him because they could not yet prove the case. “When we were forced to release him the night that this happened, I assure you none of us were happy about it,” the chief said Monday. He said investigators kept working through what became a large, document-heavy inquiry. According to police, detectives carried out 24 search warrants, interviewed dozens of people and reviewed hundreds of pages of records before making the arrest. Gwinnett County SWAT officers helped take Choates into custody Monday morning. Authorities said he later made his first court appearance and was denied bond. Police have not publicly described the evidence that tied him to the shooting, and they have not said whether prosecutors will seek additional charges.
Whaley was widely described by co-workers and neighbors as a familiar, steady presence at the Loganville store. A CVS spokesperson said after the shooting that she had worked there for seven years. Her obituary described her as a Loganville resident who was married for 18 years and known for kindness in daily life. The killing drew unusually broad investigative support for a local homicide, underscoring how seriously authorities viewed both the violence and the challenge of solving it. The Secret Service’s role was never fully explained in public statements, and police did not say whether it stemmed from digital evidence, financial tracing or other technical support. What officers did say, both in December and again this week, was that they were trying to avoid disclosing facts that could damage the prosecution. That left major questions unanswered for months, including whether Whaley had been followed, whether the shooting was random, and whether the gunman had been in the area before the attack.
Those questions remain central even after the arrest. Lowry said Monday there were no “obvious connections” between Whaley and Choates, and investigators do not believe the two knew one another. That statement points away from a clear personal dispute, but police stopped short of calling the shooting random. They also did not say whether robbery, mistaken identity or another motive is under review. For now, the procedural path is clearer than the motive. Choates is being held in the Walton County jail on the filed charges, and the case is expected to move to prosecutors for indictment and pretrial proceedings. Lowry told reporters he is highly confident in the file detectives have assembled for the district attorney. Even so, defense motions, evidence hearings and possible additional disclosures could shape what becomes public next. Investigators have also indicated that some aspects of the inquiry remain open, suggesting more records or testimony could still be gathered.
At the CVS and around Loganville, the arrest brought a mix of relief and unfinished grief. Lowry said the case had weighed on him for months and added that he hoped he might finally sleep after announcing the arrest. That remark captured the strain the investigation placed not only on Whaley’s family but on officers under pressure to explain why no one had been charged. Residents had watched a woman heading into a routine workday become the center of a mystery that spread far beyond one store parking lot. The arrest does not answer every question, but it gives the case a defendant and a path through court. For Whaley’s family, friends and co-workers, that is a step they had been waiting on since the November afternoon when a normal shift never began.
The case now stands at the charging stage, with Choates in custody and police saying the investigation is still ongoing. The next major milestone is expected to come when prosecutors present the case for indictment and future court dates are scheduled.
Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.