Three quick arrests for a whodunnit, about four days after a car was recorded leaving a popular park on Saturday, November 9.
The car was spotted on a Flock video surveillance system that the city of Brookhaven uses citywide, Brookhaven Police Department Deputy Chief Jerry Lewis said.
“Around 5:26 p.m., Brookhaven Police responded to a report of a gunshot in Blackburn Park,” Lewis said.
Lewis says Davion Antez Meux, Azra Frances Sheppard and Diamoni Henry have been charged with murder and attempted armed robbery and appeared in DeKalb Magistrate Court.
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Lewis said 21-year-old Brandon Xavier Davis was shot and killed at Blackburn Park on Ashford Dunwoody Road in a botched robbery.
“It was a vibrant park, we have the tennis center there, our softball fields and we have our cherry blossom festival there,” Lewis said.
Because witnesses described a black Audi leaving the park, investigators were able to use information from a Flock license plate reader on Ashford Dunwoody Road to determine a tag number, which led police to an Atlanta address linked to a suspected getaway driver, Azra Sheppard.
The address led to an apartment in Brookhaven, and Atlanta police served a search warrant there Wednesday, turning up three guns, which will be tested to see if one was the murder weapon.
Lewis said more technology came into play.
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“The victim had a cell phone that was found at the scene that we were able to use with our partners at Chamblee PD to help us get information from that phone,” Lewis said.
But detectives who knew what to do with technology built a case that led to the arrest of Meux and Henry at the apartment and Sheppard at a traffic stop.
Warrant documents suggest that an Instagram account in Henry’s name listed a gun for sale. $300 was sent to a Cash App account with $150 to be paid later. Sheppard texted Henry saying, “D finna rob him for the other $150” and Meux “admitted he shot when he saw the victim reaching for a gun.”
“It’s a meet and rob,” Lewis said.
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