An officer found Francisco Dwayne Zapata hanging out of his car late last Monday night at a Weatherly Drive apartment complex. According to a police report, he had no pulse and a gunshot wound to his chest.
Twelve minutes after he was found Zapata, 19, was pronounced dead.
On Thursday authorities arrested Zapata’s friend Maleik Woods on murder and armed robbery charges. Police say Woods stole $1,500 from Zapata before killing him.
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A witness in the area told police he was talking to his friends when he heard “a loud pop that reminded him of a gun shot,” according to the report.
The witness told police he and his friends didn’t think anything of it and kept talking and listening to music. As he went to leave the apartment complex, he saw something lying on the ground and initially thought it was a trash bag filled with something.
Once he realized it was a person, the witness called police.
Redacted arrest warrants for Woods do not indicate what led to the shooting or why the two were at the Stone Mountain apartment complex.
Woods, 18, of Tucker, was arrested at a Decatur business. He remains in the DeKalb County Jail without bond.
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