Police hope video will help solve Roswell killing

Print
E-mail

By LARRY HARTSTEIN 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Roswell police are trying to get a videotape from the location Fantasia Byrd and four other people visited Saturday night before returning to a Chattahoochee Landing apartment.

Family photo Fantasia Byrd had recently moved in with her father in Dacula and was working at Oilily, a women’s and children’s clothing store at Phipps Plaza.

More Atlanta area news »

Police believe it could help explain why someone stood in the parking lot and fired at least 20 shots at the apartment around 3 a.m. Sunday. One bullet pierced the front window and struck Byrd in the head, killing her.

Police would not identify the location the group visited. Byrd, 20, was not the intended target of the shooting.

“Somebody in apartment 1122 was the actual target,” Sgt. Bobby Brackett said. “Fantasia Byrd happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Byrd’s 21-year-old cousin, Noel Hazard, lives in the apartment with her husband, Ty Hutchinson, 27. Their friend, Jakeem Johnson, 32, of Tucker, and Hutchinson’s 50-year-old father, Ira Hutchinson, also were there, according to police.

Police are conducting follow-up interviews with those four, Brackett said.

“We’re working to establish a clear motive,” he said.

Surveillance video from the apartment complex wasn’t of much use, Brackett said.

Residents told WXIA-TV the gates were not closed the night of the shooting. Brackett said he could not confirm that, and management refused to comment.

Byrd, of Yonkers, arrived in metro Atlanta less than two weeks before her death. A recent community college graduate, she had moved in with her dad in Dacula and landed a job at Oilily at Phipps Plaza.

“Everything was going really positive for her,” said her uncle, Jerry Williams. “She was a bright, articulate young lady. She had so many dreams and goals.”