Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies were called shortly after 1 a.m. Nov. 19 to a shooting at the Palms Lounge at 4950 Old Barn Road, where they found 30-year-old Jordan Ashe, a security guard at the bar, on the back patio with gunshot wounds to his chest and right arm, according to an affidavit.
Deputies attempted life-saving measures, but Ashe was pronounced dead at the scene, said Maj. Jeremy Roy.
Witnesses told investigators that Ashe had been in a physical confrontation with a patron at the bar — later identified as Grooms — as the security guard escorted him out of the rear patio exit.
Surveillance video and witnesses indicate that Grooms apparently returned to the bar with a firearm. Ashe attempted to tackle the armed man to subdue him when two or three shots were fired, striking the security guard. Another bar employee used pepper spray on the shooter — who dropped his cellphone during the struggle — and a bar manager disarmed the man before he fled in his car, according to court records.
As crews processed the crime scene, the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center received a report of a crash less than a mile away near the intersection of North Main Street and Shiloh Springs Road involving a car that matched the description of the shooter’s vehicle, Roy said.
The car overturned in the crash and was heavily damaged but the driver fled on foot. Deputies and K-9 units attempted to track the suspect but were unsuccessful. Witnesses provided a description of the driver, which reportedly matched the Palms Lounge shooter.
“We were then able to verify through the registration of the vehicle and BMV photos of the suspect that it matched the description of what everybody was giving us at the homicide scene and crash scene,” Roy said.
Sheriff’s detectives were stationed outside Grooms’ house on Woolery Lane in Clayton awaiting a search warrant when Grooms returned home with visible injuries consistent with a crash, Roy said.
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
Deputies detained Grooms, who had bloodied clothing, swollen facial injuries and a pungent odor of pepper spray. Inside his house detectives found a case for a 9mm pistol that had the same serial number of the pistol the bar manager took from the shooter, the affidavit stated.
During an interview at the sheriff’s office headquarters, Grooms admitted he had been at the Palms Lounge but denied he had a gun or was in a confrontation. He said he lost his cellphone sometime during the crash; however, a ping of the phone number attributed to Grooms showed the phone remained at the Palms, according to court records.
Surveillance footage showed Grooms leave the Palms Lounge before returning shortly before the shooting. There are slight clothing variations during his two visits, which match items recovered in his bedroom closet and indicates he may have returned to his house where the firearm case was found, the affidavit stated.
Grooms remains held on $1 million bail in the Montgomery County Jail.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
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