Within an hour after it was posted Tuesday afternoon, it had raised $700. By 5 p.m. that day, it was 10 times that.
By press time Wednesday, a GoFundMe for Adelnagi “John” Musa had surpassed $20,500 in donations and brought an outpouring of goodwill that surprised the affable owner of United Deli in East Columbus.
“It means a lot,” Musa said. “They’re my family and I appreciate every single one of them. I was shocked at how good people have been to me.”
Now, Columbus Police Department is reviewing body camera footage to see if Musa’s early Tuesday morning arrest was warranted.
Musa, 49, was arrested at about 3:50 a.m. outside Metro PCS at 114 Alabama St. — he owns the building and leases it to the business. He is accused of simple assault for holding a man he believed was stealing copper from the building’s HVAC units at gunpoint until officers arrived. Musa told officers he drove to the property after motion sensors alerted him to an intruder behind the building.
The suspected thief was not arrested.
On Tuesday afternoon, Police Chief Joseph Daughtry said it was unclear if the man Musa was holding at gunpoint was responsible for committing the burglary, adding of Musa, “you can’t just pull a gun on someone because you think they’re doing something.”
Both Lowndes County sheriff’s deputies and CPD officers responded to a “burglary in progress” at the scene Tuesday morning.
Sheriff Eddie Hawkins, speaking with The Dispatch on Wednesday, said his deputies did not see any merit to arresting Musa, adding that deputy body camera footage would make that “more than obvious.”
The Dispatch obtained that body camera footage Wednesday through a public records request and has submitted a request to the city for its officers’ body camera footage of the incident as well.
Daughtry, when contacted by The Dispatch on Wednesday, said his department is taking a second look.
“I’m going through the body camera footage now,” he said. “I promised the people that I was going to be transparent. I don’t have a problem with transparency. I’m looking to see what we did or didn’t do, how we did it, and to make sure that the policies weren’t broken.”
Deputy body camera footage
LCSO released body camera footage from three deputies who responded to the scene, where they found a Black male lying on the ground behind the store.
Deputies determined the man was unarmed. He told deputies he followed a path and jumped across a fence to enter the property but was just “walking to my girl’s house.” He denied stealing anything from the property.
Footage shows Musa unloading a handgun and placing it in his vehicle at a deputy’s orders and leading the deputy around to the front of the building to a poster containing surveillance camera images showing a man he claims stole copper from the HVAC units on Jan. 9 and 23.
One deputy is heard telling Musa, “I’m not worried about you having a gun. I’m just trying to figure out what happened.” Later on, two deputies, looking again at the poster, conclude the man lying on the ground could be the supposed thief in the photos.
“That’s probably him,” one deputy said.
Later footage shows a Columbus police officer confronting Musa and asking if he pulled a gun on the man. When Musa confirmed he had, the officer ordered Musa to be handcuffed.
After that, deputies declared CPD had taken control of the scene. One deputy could be heard saying, “Let’s get out of here.” Another said, “I say we high-tail it out of here.”
GoFundMe
Musa’s arrest was the catalyst for the GoFundMe, which local Realtor Colin Krieger set up for him.
In it, he writes that Musa had suffered as much as $10,000 in property damage from vandalism and theft and called on the community to help. As of press time, 359 donors had answered that call.
Beyond that, Musa’s restaurant on Tuscaloosa Road, the beloved United Deli, has been packed during operating hours since the arrest.
“I hate that it took an incident like this for people to be able to show that they love John so much,” Krieger said. “He does so much quietly for the community, and never says, ‘No,’ when people ask him to do something. He really is walking, talking proof of the American Dream.”
Donations range from $10 to $1,000.
One donor was Lowndes County District 2 Supervisor and Board President Trip Hairston, who gave $100.
“I’m happy to patronize his business, and I am certainly happy to give to his GoFundMe because he’s had a lot of damage to his buildings by thieves, and he’s been so worried about that,” Hairston said. “It cost him money out of pocket to repair the damage the thieves had made. Then when he thinks he might have somebody that has been doing the damage to his building, he’s the one that’s carried to jail. It’s hard for me to understand what’s going on. I’m in full support of (Musa) in this thing, and I hope the charges are dropped as soon as they can be dropped.”
Reporter Brian Jones contributed to this report.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
