Suspect Arrested in Atlanta Slayings

ATLANTA — A traffic stop near Memphis last Saturday led to the arrest of man on murder charges in the slayings of four hotel guests, including three men from the trucking industry who came to Atlanta to watch a football game.

The driver, Harry Lee Johnson, was nervous and evasive when he was stopped by sheriff's deputies who clocked him driving 12 mph over the speed limit, the authorities said. A search of his car turned up a .45-caliber pistol and credit cards belonging to the shooting victims, all of who were killed with a .45, officials said.

The weapon was sent to the Georgia state crime laboratory to determine whether it was the one used to kill Gerrold Shropshire of Altamonte Springs, Fla., Ronald Gutkowski of Leesburg, Fla., and Phillip Dover of Gainesville, Ga., in the Atlanta Hilton and Towers Oct. 18 (TT, 11-2-98, p. 17).

Mr. Shropshire and Mr. Gutkowski worked for Lester Coggins Trucking in Okahumpka, Fla. Mr. Dover worked for GTO 2000, a trucking broker in Gainesville, Ga.

Three days earlier, Ladaris Hawkins was found shot to death at a Days Inn in the Atlanta suburb of College Park, Ga.

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