Suspect arrested in connection to apartment burglary, death of Alabama man fatally shot while sleeping

A man already incarcerated in Georgia is now accused in Alabama of burglarizing an apartment and murdering a man while he slept, police said.

On Dec. 8, Solomon Terrell Cooper of Climax, Georgia, was charged with one count of capital murder in connection to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Sincere Tyson in Dothan, Alabama, nearly two months earlier.

“Investigators have been working tirelessly on this case since the date it occurred,” the Dothan Police Department stated.

The 19-year-old suspect has been in custody for over a month on unrelated charges in Muscogee County, Georgia, and is expected to be transferred to Alabama.

On Oct. 9, Cooper allegedly shot Tyson while burglarizing his apartment. A roommate found Tyson wounded in bed, the Dothan Eagle reported, and he later succumbed to his gunshot injuries at an area hospital.

The victim’s mother, Lerwanna McClinden told WDHN the news of Cooper's arrest after almost two months was “bittersweet" since it "doesn’t bring my son back, and that’s our harsh reality.”

Still, she said, “now I can sleep good at night knowing that this person is not out there harming anyone else’s child, and now we can grieve, just a little bit, because it’s not over yet."

McClinden had a message for anyone who may be connected to the homicide case. “So they need to know that we are just getting started,” she said. “I’m just getting started, and I’m not done yet. I want all the key players. I want the people that knew about it and said nothing.”

Cooper will be held without bond once he is extradited to Alabama, and he could face more charges related to the case, according to the Dothan Eagle.