Family: Man shot 31 times was set up

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dionta Browning was waiting for a woman when cars boxed him in and opened fire, shooting him 31 times, his family said.

Browning, 29, died Saturday after being shot in his car in southwest Atlanta, police said.

The unemployed Atlanta man known as “Red DA” got a call to meet a woman near Lisbon and Cahoon streets, his aunt Kathy Bloodworth said Wednesday.

Browning was there waiting when two cars approached, police told family members.

“They drove in front of him and in the back of him, Bloodworth said “He was stuck.”

The two drivers – one armed with an assault rifle and the other with a 9mm handgun – fired 31 shots before speeding off, police said.

Police found Browning dead inside his car.

“It’s real crazy,” Bloodworth said. “That made me think there was a hit on him, like it was gang-related or Mafia or something.”

Police said they don’t have a description of the shooters.

Browning’s family said they have no idea who would want to hurt him, but suspect he may have had some conflicts while in prison.

“He was so private with his life,” his mother Faye Browning said.

Browning grew up in the Martin Luther King Jr. section of Atlanta and started hanging out with the wrong crowd, his family said.

In 2004, he was convicted of burglary and possession of a firearm, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.

He was out of prison when he got in trouble again for possession of a gun by a convicted felon and was sent back to the Central State Prison in Macon, according to jail records. He was released in 2008.

“He’s not an angel,” Bloodworth said. “But when he got out of jail, he changed his life and was trying to do right.”

He got his GED while in prison.

Browning worked at a truck stop, but recently got laid off. He was staying in Snellville with a woman and looking for a job when the shooting occurred, his mother said.

The mother said she last saw her son on Friday.

“We were just messing around,” she said. “He ate two bags of chips, like he normally does when he comes over, and we talked.”

On Tuesday, the family visited the shooting location, a residential area near Perkerson Park and the Capitol View neighborhood.

“There ain’t no way in the world you can tell me no one saw anything,” Bloodworth said. “Whatever is done in the dark is coming to the light.”

Detectives have gotten several anonymous tips and are working to find the shooters, Bloodworth said.

“It’s very scary. Whoever did it needs to be off the street,” she said. “Anybody walking around with an assault rifle that can shoot 50 times needs to be locked up.”

Anyone with information about the shooting may call 404-577-TIPS.