Arrest made after metro Atlanta mayoral campaign manager shot, killed at gas station

JONESBORO, Ga. — Police have made an arrest after a disabled veteran, who worked on a local mayoral candidate’s campaign, was shot and killed.

The Jonesboro Police Department released a statement Thursday saying they arrested Joe Link, 73, in connection with the murder of Coybern Jones, 67.

Jones was shot not long after he got into an argument at a nearby gas station in Jonesboro.

“Oh, my God,” Arlene Charles, a candidate for Jonesboro mayor said just thinking about her friend’s death.

Charles is heartbroken after learning someone shot and killed her unofficial campaign manager, Jones. She remembers getting the news.

“And I was just like, ‘That can’t be true,’” she told Channel 2′s Tom Jones.

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Jonesboro police say Link shot Jones in the neck on Johnson St. and Woodland Dr. on Monday evening. His body was found in the road near a cemetery.

Police say Jones had gotten into an argument with Link at a nearby gas station right before the shooting.

Jones liked to hang out at the gas station and that’s where he met Charles.

“I was putting out my signs,” Charles explained.

Charles says Jones approached her and asked her why was she running for mayor, so she told him.

Days later, Charles says she heard someone was in a black truck with her signs asking people to support her. Then one day she saw the truck.

“And I said, ‘You driving around with my signs?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m campaigning for you, boss.’”

She said he had been on her campaign team ever since until someone ended his life.

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Jones’ sister was very emotional about someone taking his life.

“This evil person, for whatever reason, decided to do this,” she said.

She says her brother was a disabled veteran who had PTSD. She says he was prone to sudden verbal outbursts, but she says he would never harm a fly.

“He should be alive. This person has taken my little brother from us,” she cried.

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