A Fairburn man was sentenced to life in prison for the 2013 murder of a 22-year-old who “looked at him funny” outside a Union City gas station, prosecutors said.
Alan Dennis, 30, shot and killed Michael Henderson after the two exchanged words outside a Shell gas station on Roosevelt Highway, authorities said.
According to investigators, Dennis was smoking a Black and Mild cigar and playing loud music from his car when Henderson looked over at him.
Dennis claimed he told Henderson to stop staring at him, but the victim did not.
At that point, Dennis walked over to Henderson and confronted him for looking in his direction, saying, “What are you looking at? You keep looking over here,” prosecutors said.
Moments later, Dennis pulled a 9mm handgun from his waistband and shot Henderson in the chest. Henderson, who worked at a Family Dollar store to earn the money to buy his 1977 Chevrolet Impala, died on the way to the hospital.
Witnesses told police Henderson did nothing to provoke Dennis, who fled the scene shortly after shooting the 22-year-old.
He was pulled over moments later and told officers he acted in self-defense, but police never recovered a weapon from Henderson’s car, authorities said.
Dennis was convicted of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and reckless conduct, court records show.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Kenneth Ricks, who was with Dennis at the time of the shooting, was also arrested and charged with murder, AJC.com previously reported.
A spokesman for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said Friday that Ricks was convicted of aggravated assault during a separate trial and sentenced to 26 years behind bars. He is appealing that conviction.
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