A man who spent more than three years on the Atlanta Police Department's Most Wanted list for murder suspects is finally in custody. The FBI says its Violent Crime Task Force captured Mi'Quae Williams, 25, at a home in Coweta County on Tuesday morning, November 10, ending a hunt that began with a deadly drive-by shooting outside an Atlanta music studio in September 2023.
Source: Atlanta News First via SnapFeed
The capture was a four-agency operation. The FBI's Atlanta field office said its Violent Crime Task Force made the arrest with the assistance of the Atlanta Police Department, the Coweta County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia State Patrol. Williams was taken at a home in Coweta County, the largely suburban and rural county southwest of Atlanta whose county seat is Newnan, roughly 40 miles from downtown Atlanta. Authorities have not described any struggle or injuries during the arrest, and no further arrests at the home were reported.
The 2023 shooting on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard
Williams was wanted on a charge of murder in the drive-by shooting of Nicholas Carter, according to the FBI and Atlanta police. Carter, 23, was shot to death outside a music studio in the 400 block of Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in the early morning of September 16, 2023, Atlanta police said. Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard is a major corridor in southwest Atlanta named for the civil rights leader who was Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest associate. Carter's killing remained unsolved in public for more than three years while Williams stayed on the department's Most Wanted list.
Source: USCT News, reporting the FBI announcement
Williams is charged with murder; he has not been convicted. A charge is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless and until he is proved guilty in court. Reporting so far comes from the FBI's announcement and Atlanta police accounts of the 2023 shooting.
Why this capture took a federal task force
FBI Violent Crime Task Forces pair federal agents with local officers specifically to hunt violent fugitives who cross city and county lines — exactly the pattern in this case, where a suspect wanted in Atlanta was living or staying in a different county. The Atlanta field office's announcement credited the local partners, Coweta County deputies and state troopers, alongside city police, a structure designed so that a fugitive cannot simply move one county away and disappear from a single department's view.
For Carter's family, local television reporting described the arrest as a step closer to closure more than three years after his death. Drive-by shootings outside studios and clubs have been a recurring concern in Atlanta's nightlife areas, and a Most Wanted listing is the police department's public signal that a case remains active and that tips are still being sought — in this case, until the task force located Williams in Coweta County on Tuesday.
What happens next
Williams now faces the murder charge arising from Carter's death. Authorities have not announced a first court date, and the FBI announcement did not give details of where Williams was being held after the Coweta County capture or when he would be transferred into the custody that will bring him before a judge in the Atlanta case. The next public steps in a case of this kind are booking, a first court appearance on the murder charge, and then the Fulton County prosecution process — Awaaz Punjab will update this story when a court date is announced.
Anyone with further information about the September 16, 2023 shooting on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard is typically asked to contact Atlanta police or Crime Stoppers Atlanta, which accepts anonymous tips. Police have not said whether they are seeking anyone else in connection with the drive-by shooting.