A father is in jail, charged with second-degree murder after his 7-year-old son was shot to death inside a car at a DeKalb County gas station Monday, according to police.
Officers responded to the shooting call at around 6:30 p.m. at a Texaco along Rock Chapel Road, just a few miles north of Lithonia. When they arrived, they found the child already dead with a gunshot wound to the head, police said. The boy’s 6-year-old brother also was in the car at the time of the shooting.
Their father, 42-year-old Dante Daugherty, was arrested and taken to the DeKalb jail. He also faces two counts of second-degree cruelty to children.
It is not clear if the boy shot himself or if his brother pulled the trigger, as police have not released any additional information. But Daugherty’s arrest warrant states that the boys found the gun after Daugherty walked into the convenience store.
Video obtained by Channel 2 Action News shows Daugherty’s two sons get into their car by the gas pump while he walks inside. The moment of the shooting can’t be seen, but the footage shows one of the boys throwing open his car door and running out of frame.
The video shows Daugherty as he returns to the car looking confused about why the door is open. Channel 2 did not broadcast his full reaction, but Daugherty was described as “frantic and distraught.”
According to Georgia law, a second-degree murder charge applies if prosecutors can prove a child died due to criminal negligence. That is, whether an adult was aware or should have been aware of a gun being within reach of the child and did nothing to secure it. Under the law, the alleged negligence amounts to child cruelty in the second degree, which is why the charges accompany each other if the child dies.
The combination of charges is one of the few legal avenues that Georgia prosecutors can use to impose consequences for parents or caregivers who do not securely store their weapons since the state does not have a law requiring the safe storage of firearms.
In recent months, several metro Atlanta parents have faced charges after their children were hurt or killed by firearms.
In January, 3-year-old Amir Porter found a gun and turned it on himself while visiting his father, Devante Porter, at an extended-stay hotel in Douglasville, police said at the time. Devante Porter was arrested on several charges, including aggravated assault and second-degree cruelty to children. He later told a Douglas County judge that he wasn’t to blame for his son shooting himself.
In October of last year, a child, whose name and age were not released, was shot in the hand at an apartment complex in Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood. The father, Quinton Gay, faced a charge of second-degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct, police said.
A few months earlier, in August, 4-year-old Kendal Lewis was riding with her mother on I-85 in DeKalb County when she found a gun and fatally shot herself. Her mother, Kaelin Lewis, was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder after she allegedly failed to secure the gun in her car.
It is not clear how many children are hurt by gunfire in metro Atlanta, as police don’t release many details in most cases and some incidents may not be reported to the public at all by police.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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