News Year's Day murder victim: ‘I don't go to clubs. People die. - WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather & Sports

The girlfriend of a Columbus State University student, who was killed in a club shootout on New Year's Day, is breaking her silence. In an exclusive interview with News Leader 9, the victim's girlfriend explained what happened that horrific night. 

Laquioa Arnold, 25, and Charles Foster Junior, 24, knew each other for years. "He taught me the real meaning of love. This was the first person who loved me and I loved him back," Arnold said.

They were a couple for six months before Foster was gunned down inside a crowded Columbus bar.

"I actually had to beg him [to go].  He decided to go to the club at 8:00 that night. He was planning to go to church," said Arnold.

Foster canceled his plans to celebrate the New Year at church; instead he went with Arnold to a New Years Eve party at Majestic Sports Bar on Cusseta Road.

"It hurts so bad, because that day he told me, ‘I don't go to clubs. People die at clubs.' For him to die that same night at the club and he just told me it's the reason he don't go to the club, I have to live with that every day," said Arnold.

Columbus police are accusing Dequandrea Truitt, 21, of killing Foster and shooting 6 other people that night.

"At 2:00 a.m. all [I] heard was pow! I looked at [Charles], he looked at me and we ran.  After the second shot, I fell to the ground, he did too. I thought he was falling to the ground to duck, but he fell to the ground because they shot him," said Arnold.

A few days later, Truitt turned himself in. In preliminary hearing, Truitt's attorney testified Truitt is incapable of using his right primary arm due to it being badly damaged weeks earlier in a separate shooting incident.  Arnold said Truitt's broken arm proves he was the shooter.

"That's why he didn't have complete control of the gun; he didn't have complete control of his hand," Arnold said. "When he shot that gun, he realized that gun was more powerful than he thought.  He didn't have a little gun; he had a big boy gun.  If you put a big boy gun in your hand, you can do some big boy time."

Columbus investigators report 13 to 15 shots were fired inside the club with a large caliber hand gun.  Arnold believed Foster was not a target and said he had nothing to do with the shooting.

"I went back in to look for him; he was lying on the ground. That was the worst day of my life. I couldn't quit crying and screaming. I was just talking to him and I said baby you're going to make it," said Arnold.

Everyday, Arnold said she replayed that night in her head.  She said in her heart she believes Foster shouldn't have died that day.

"I wish the ambulance would've done more for him. They took him as a drug dealer. They came in the club they were very rude - the police officers. They treated him like he was a drug dealer."

Foster was five months away from graduating from CSU with a degree in Political Science. He had plans of one day becoming a judge.

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