Columbus murder suspect nabbed before flight

COLUMBUS, Ind. — A Columbus man charged with murder in the southern Indiana city has been arrested in Miami before boarding a flight to Panama.

Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash tells The Republic that 46-year-old Clifton Hamilton Cook Sr. was arrested Sunday and is being held without bond in a Miami jail.

Cook is accused of shooting 50-year-old Gary Joseph Brown of Greensburg. Brown died early Friday at Columbus Region Hospital from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Nash says his office filed the murder charge Sunday morning so that Cook’s name could be entered into a national database. He says the murder warrant was issued “just in the nick of time” for Miami airport police to arrest Cook.

A home owned by Cook was searched Friday by police.