The case against an Atlanta man accused of gunning down a neighbor who mistakenly knocked on his door last month will move forward after a judge ruled Friday there is probable cause to pursue a murder charge.
Darryl Bynes, 32, is accused of shooting and killing 19-year-old Omarian Banks from his balcony at the Retreat apartments along Fairburn Road after Banks mistook Bynes’ apartment for the one he and his girlfriend shared.
Credit: WSB-TV John Spink/AJC WSB-TV
Credit: WSB-TV John Spink/AJC WSB-TV
Police said Banks knocked on the door about 12:30 a.m on March 29.
“Shortly after, the victim walked away from the door,” Atlanta police spokesman Officer Jarius Daugherty said. “The resident of the apartment then went onto his balcony to confront the victim. A verbal exchange ensued between the two parties and, at some point, the resident produced a handgun and shot the victim.”
Bynes, who claims self-defense, remained at the scene until police arrived and arrested him.
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Banks’ girlfriend said the whole thing was a misunderstanding, that her boyfriend took a Lyft home and must have gotten dropped off in front of the wrong breezeway and knocked on the wrong door.
“He called me and he said open the door because he was getting a Lyft home, but when I opened the door I didn’t see him,” she said. “Then I hear one gunshot, and after that, I hear him yell, ‘I’m sorry, bro. I’m at the wrong house.’”
She said she then heard her neighbor tell her boyfriend, “Nah, (expletive), you’re not at the wrong house,” before firing two more times.
She ran downstairs to her boyfriend, who she said was lying in the grass.
“I turned him over and that’s when I seen the gunshot wound to his neck and blood all over him,” she said. “He came to the wrong door ... It wasn’t self-defense.”
An APD detective testified that police never found a gun on Banks, but the one Bynes used was stolen, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Bynes remains held without bond at the Fulton County jail, records show.
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