A Doorbell Ring, an Inmate on the Run, and a $5,000 Promise Broken in Covington

Rodneyka Twilley was tucked into bed in her Covington home early on a December morning when her security system chirped, signaling someone was at the front door. It was just after midnight, a time when visitors are usually a cause for concern. When she checked the footage, she saw a man looking disheveled and desperate, claiming he was lost and needed to use a phone. Rodneyka didn’t know it yet, but the man on her porch was Timothy Shane, a high-risk inmate who had slipped away from deputies days earlier.

The drama had started roughly 48 hours prior at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Shane, 52, had been rushed there after what investigators now believe was a staged suicide attempt at the Rockdale County Jail. During a moment when his handcuffs were removed for medical testing, Shane bolted. He led police on a multi-county chase, allegedly stealing two different cars and a Glock handgun along the way. By the time he reached Rodneyka’s doorstep on Green Acres Court, he was the subject of a massive manhunt and a $5,000 reward flyer from Crime Stoppers of Greater Atlanta.

Rodneyka’s instincts kicked in immediately. She didn’t open the door, but she did watch him closely through her camera. She and her daughter called 911, handing over the crystal-clear video that showed Shane’s face and the direction he was headed. “He looked like something out of a horror movie,” she later recalled, noting the dirt on his hands and his frantic demeanor. Within hours of her tip, police swarmed a nearby abandoned house where they found Shane hiding. He was taken back into custody without further incident.

In the days following the arrest, the community breathed a sigh of relief, but Rodneyka began a different kind of struggle. She had seen the flyers. She knew there was a reward for information leading to his capture. Given that her tip provided the exact location and visual confirmation that ended the search, she expected to hear from Crime Stoppers about the $5,000 bounty. Instead, she says she has been met with a wall of silence.

The situation has left the Covington resident feeling more than a little frustrated. She points out that she did exactly what the authorities asked the public to do: she stayed alert and she spoke up. In her mind, the reward isn’t just about the money; it’s about the principle of a promise made to citizens who put themselves at risk to help the police. She’s reached out multiple times, but the “Greater Atlanta” chapter of the organization has yet to cut a check or even give her a solid update.

Crime Stoppers generally operates by assigning tipsters an anonymous code, and rewards are typically paid out after a board review confirms the tip was the “direct” cause of an arrest. While law enforcement has publicly credited tips from the neighborhood for Shane’s capture, the administrative gears of the reward program seem to be turning much slower than the handcuffs did that night.

For now, Rodneyka is left waiting and wondering if the “up to $5,000” on those flyers was just talk. She’s glad the neighborhood is safe and that a dangerous man is back behind bars, but she can’t help but feel like the system is failing its end of the bargain. “We did make that call,” she said, “and they did put it out there that there was a reward.” It’s a simple argument, and one that many in Covington are watching closely.