Cops: Resident Shot Teen Who Knocked on Wrong Door

Atlanta teen was killed as he walked away, police say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 1, 2019 12:33 AM CDT
Teen Shot Dead After Knocking on Wrong Door
Darryl Bynes.   (Fulton County Sheriff's Office)

An Atlanta teenager was shot dead just for knocking on the door of the wrong apartment, police say. Omarian Banks, 19, was fatally shot early Friday after taking a Lyft home from his mother's home and knocking on the door of what he thought was the apartment he shared with girlfriend Zsakeria Mathis, USA Today reports. Police say that after Banks knocked on his door around 12:30am, resident Darryl Bynes, 32, grabbed a gun and fired three times at the teenager as he walked away. Bynes shot Banks from his balcony after a brief verbal exchange, police say. Mathis says she had been FaceTiming with Banks, who asked her to open the door. She said when she opened it, he wasn't there but she heard voices from elsewhere in the complex.

"I just hear faint voices and a gunshot, and then I hear him yell," Mathis tells WSB. "And I heard all the fear in his voice and he was just, 'I’m sorry! I’m at the wrong door!’ The man was like, 'No, you’re not at the wrong door!' And he shot two more times and then it was silent." Bynes was charged with murder. His cousin, Makayla Johnson, says he is an "innocent father" who was "protecting his family" after his truck was stolen that week. Banks' mother, Lisa Johnson, tells the New York Times that her son, a crew chief at McDonald's, was tired. She says apartments at the complex look identical from the outside. "I don’t understand. I am dealing with the why," she says. "How someone could be that evil to just shoot someone that clearly made a mistake and was begging you for their life?" (More Atlanta stories.)

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