Despite his guilty plea, 18-year-old Demetrius Deshon Dorsey was able to avoid prison time for stealing a set of keys and trying to break into cars.
As a first offender, he was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months on probation and was given credit for 108 days already served in the Cobb County jail. Dorsey was also ordered to get treatment for drug abuse and begin a program to complete his high school degree, court records show. But one week later, he was dead, shot during a standoff with police.
Around 11 p.m. Sunday, Cobb officers were called to an armed robbery at the Marathon convenience store at 6430 Mableton Parkway in Mableton, the GBI said. Inside the store, Dorsey was holding two employees hostage at gunpoint, according to investigators.
He had barricaded himself inside the store and refused to surrender, leading officers to call in SWAT negotiators. It was SWAT Officer Dennis Ponte who shot Dorsey, who died after being taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, according to the GBI, which is assisting with the investigation.
“The two hostages were not injured during the incident,” the GBI said in an emailed statement. “They were checked out by medical personnel on scene and released.”
The handgun belonging to Dorsey was located at the scene, the GBI said. Ponte has been placed on administrative leave.
Just a week before he was killed, Dorsey appeared in Cobb County Superior Court on April 11 on charges stemming from an October arrest.
On Oct. 10, Dorsey and an accomplice, Jalen Leverette, were caught on video stealing keys inside the QT gas station on Six Flags Drive in Austell, his arrest warrant states. The pair then attempted to break into cars that were parked outside the gas station, according to police.
A grand jury indicted the pair on two counts of criminal attempt to commit a felony and one count of theft by taking in February, records showed. Leverette received the same sentence as Dorsey, records showed.
The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy on Dorsey.
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