Georgia man guns down immigrant after GPS sends him to wrong driveway

A 69-year-old war veteran and former missionary was arrested over the weekend on the suspicion of killing a 22-year-old Colombian immigrant who mistakenly arrived in his driveway because of faulty GPS directions.

Gwinnett County jail records obtained by The Atlanta Journal Constitution indicated that Phillip Walker Sailors was charged on Sunday with the murder of Rodrigo Abad Diaz.

Friends who were in the car with Diaz told WSB-TV that they were trying to pick up a friend on the way to ice skating on Saturday but their GPS directed them to the wrong address. The friends said that they waited in the driveway for a few minutes before Sailors emerged from the house and fired a gun into the air.

Gandy Cardenas, who was in the car, recalled to WAGA that the homeowner made no effort to speak to the group before opening fire.

"He didn't talk to them, he just started shooting," Cardenas explained. "The first shot was in the air."

At that point, Diaz tried to turn the car around to leave, but Sailors fired another shot, striking the immigrant on the left side of the head. The group, which included a 15 and an 18 year old, said that Sailors held them at gunpoint until police arrived.

The arrest warrant suggested that Sailors had shot Diaz with a .22 caliber pistol. He was charged with malice murder.

WSB-TV's Tony Thomas reported that Sailors was a war veteran and a former church missionary.

Watch the video below from WAGA, broadcast Jan. 28, 2013.

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[Photo: Gwinnett County jail]

[Ed. Note: A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that Rodrigo Abad Diaz had immigrated from Cuba instead of Colombia.]