A man said a former coworker and neighbor stole $500, a pistol, a Nike jacket, a backpack, a sweatshirt and some marijuana from him.
So a few months later, he walked onto a MARTA train on April 13, 2017, and opened fire on the man and three others.
When Chauncey Daniels finished firing, he walked to where the man had been sitting, opened a backpack and removed a black jacket — then walked off the train.
He made it only a short distance before a MARTA police officer tackled him, ending the terrifying ordeal.
But in the aftermath, 37-year-old Zachariah Hunnicutt was dead and the three bystanders had to be hospitalized.
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More than a year later, a Fulton County jury convicted Daniels of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The 37-year-old was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 75 years, according to a news release from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
Daniels and Hunnicutt worked together in 2016 and briefly lived in the same apartment complex. So Hunnicutt recognized the man when he boarded the MARTA train at the H.E. Holmes station.
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Carrying a 9mm handgun, Daniels began shooting at Hunnicutt and his girlfriend, 36-year-old Johnesia Cofield, while Ernest Butler, 61, and Angel Bowens, 20, began running away, the release said. All four were hit by gunfire.
The gunman then stood over Hunnicutt, who was covering his head with his hands, and continued to pull the trigger — but the gun jammed, according to the DA’s office, which said the entire incident was caught on surveillance video.
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Hunnicutt was shot six times, in his neck, torso, arms and legs, and died on the train.
Cofield was struck in the leg and spent four days at Grady Memorial Hospital. Butler was shot in the thigh and released from Grady after a day. Bowens was released from the hospital the same day after being shot in the hip.
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