Jonathan Soto, 43, is wanted in connection with the 2023 killing of Michael Gidewon, co-owner of Atlanta’s Republic Lounge.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jonathan Soto, who was placed on Atlanta’s Top 10 Most Wanted list after a widely publicized 2023 homicide, has been arrested in Jacksonville, more than three years after the killing.
Soto is accused of shooting Gidewon outside the Republic Lounge on Brady Avenue NW on Feb. 4, 2023. Atlanta police arrived that morning and found the nightclub co-owner with a gunshot wound to the head.
According to Atlanta Police, who spoke with the city’s WXIA news partner, the suspect had allegedly been removed from the club for intoxication before returning with a firearm and fatally shooting Gidewon.
Gidewon was a husband and father of four who operated the venue with his brother, Alex. The Republic Lounge announced its closure soon after his death.
In a message directed at Soto after the shooting, Alex Gidewon wrote: “You executed my brother, in front of the club, in front of people, and walked home like it was nothing.” He said Soto had once been a close friend whom he considered family.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office worked with the Atlanta Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Service to locate Soto at a Southside Jacksonville apartment complex Wednesday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities surrounded an apartment on Gate Parkway North, but Soto allegedly refused to surrender. A SWAT team later entered the unit and took him into custody without serious incident.
“We are proud of our partnerships with law enforcement agencies, not just locally but across the country. Working together, we get dangerous fugitives off our streets,” the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said in a Wednesday post.
Soto remains jailed in Duval County while authorities hold him on a fugitive warrant.
