Boy, 19, shot dead after he knocked on wrong door of apartment complex he had just moved to in Atlanta
Authorities have announced that a man fatally shot a teen boy who accidentally knocked on the wrong apartment door in a building in Atlanta, Georgia. The incident took place at around 12:30 am on March 29 at The Retreat apartments. Authorities said that 19-year-old Omarian Banks got dropped off close to the wrong breezeway in the complex after taking a Lyft ride.
WSB-TV reported that Banks and his girlfriend had only just moved to the building complex and he wasn't too familiar with the area yet. Banks had walked into the building that he thought their apartment was in but it was the wrong door.
The teen knocked on the door but he walked away eventually. Authorities then said that Banks had been talking to his girlfriend on FaceTime when he knocked on the door.
As the teen started walking away, the man inside the apartment that Banks just knocked came to his door and opened it. Authorities identified the man inside the apartment as 32-year-old Darryl Bynes.
They said he had grabbed his gun, gone to his balcony to confront the teen, and shot him after he had a short conversation with Banks. Bynes has now been charged with murder.
Zsakeria Mathis, Banks' girlfriend, told the TV station: "I heard him say, 'Sorry, I'm at the wrong house'. Then the man said, 'No you're not. N****, you at the right house'. And he shot two more times."
A neighbor in the building also recalled the horrific incident in a similar way. They told WSB-TV: "I see him running around the corner and all you hear him saying is, 'I am sorry. It was the wrong door'. (He said), 'You ain’t come to the wrong door' and shot him a third time. I saw him drop to the ground."
Police officers said that Bynes had originally claimed that he shot the teen in self-defense, but investigators on the case believe that he shot Banks from his balcony while the teen was trying to run away. Michael Wallace, a family friend of Banks, said: "This is a 19-year-old child that didn’t even deserve to die, that hasn’t even lived his life."
Bynes' family, however, disagree with his murder charge. Makayla Johnson, his cousin, said: "He is an innocent father. He has five kids. He was protecting his family. His truck was stolen earlier this week, right now, he's just trying to protect his family."