By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

A Chapel Hill man has been charged with murdering his son-in-law in the Carrboro Plaza parking lot Monday evening.

Garland Mcray King Jr., of 900 Sesame Rd., was apprehended by police shortly after 6 p.m. Monday. King, 65, was found in possession of a handgun. The victim, 59-year-old James Kenneth Imonti, was found unconscious, lying face down, having been shot once in the back. He was transported by Orange County EMS to UNC Hospitals, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

According to Carrboro police Captain J.G. Booker, King was apprehended as soon as police arrived at the scene, and he did not resist arrest.

“Apparently, it was kind of an ongoing family-type dispute,” Booker said. According to a police department press release, King shot Imonti in the back at close range after an argument in the parking lot near Food Lion.

Christine Lysle, senior veterinary technician at Carrboro Veterinary Clinic in Carrboro Plaza, said she heard a noise that sounded like a truck backfiring while inside the clinic.

“No one really knew what was going on,” she said.

Lysle went outside to find out what the commotion was, and said people started filling the plaza as police arrived.

“It was pretty packed with a lot of people,” she said. “Anything could have happened in that parking lot. An innocent person could have come out and the bullet could have ricocheted. There were children around.”

Lysle said because the incident involved a family dispute, she wasn’t concerned about future violence at the plaza.

However, she added: “I can guarantee a lot of people in here are really worried now.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that,” said Lysle, who has worked at Carrboro Veterinary Clinic for 17 years.

King is being held at the Orange County Jail.