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A teenager in Atlanta was shot dead Friday after knocking on the door of an apartment that he mistakenly thought was the one he had shared with his girlfriend, authorities said.
Omarian Banks, the teenager, approached the apartment Friday around 12:30 pm and started knocking on the door with the impression that his girlfriend was inside, the police said. After Mr. Banks, 19, left, a man inside appeared on his second floor balcony to confront him and opened fire.
Darryl I. Bynes, 32, is suspected of murder.
Mr. Banks' girlfriend, Zsakeria Mathis, 23, was waiting for Mr. Banks because he had called to ask him to open the door. The conversation lasted three seconds.
"I went to open the door and he was not standing there," Mathis said Sunday. Mrs. Mathis could not see Mr. Banks, so she started coming out of her apartment and soon heard weak voices.
"The voices were not loud enough to be an argument or an altercation," Ms. Mathis said. She said that she soon heard a shot.
"It stopped me," said Mathis. Then she heard her boyfriend apologize for the confusion.
"I'm sorry, I made a mistake," Banks said, according to Mathis. She said she then heard a man utter a racial insult and say, "Nah, you're at the right house," followed by two more shots.
She said he saw Mr. Banks on the grass and ran him shouting his name, but he did not answer. "He had tears in his eyes and I noticed a bullet in his neck." I yelled, "Some help!" "
Police said Mr. Bynes and Mr. Banks had a "verbal exchange" before Mr. Bynes fired a handgun three times from his balcony. Mr. Banks was declared dead at the scene.
Mr. Bynes is being held without bail. A lawyer appearing in Mr. Bynes' archives could be reached immediately on Sunday.
Banks, who was team leader at a McDonald's restaurant, had just left his mother's house, his mother Lisa Johnson said on Sunday.
"He said he was tired," Ms. Johnson said. "Normally, his girlfriend would look for him, but she sent him a Lyft and 30 minutes later she was on the phone and saying that he was dead."
Mathis and Banks, who turned 19 in March, had been living in the apartment complex for eight months, Johnson said. She stated that Mr. Bynes' apartment looked identical to that of his son, which made it easier to confuse with his own.
Ms. Mathis stated that Mr. Banks always called him when he was near his home.
"I always open the door," she says. "Both times, he has always been there, but on this occasion, he has found himself in the wrong place."
Mr. Bynes was charged with driving without a valid license in 2015 and possession of marijuana in 2010, according to court records. The settlement of these cases was not immediately available.
Mr. Bynes' family said he acted to defend himself and his children because his car was stolen earlier in the week. WSB-TV reported. Police could not confirm Sunday when he reported the theft of his car.
Ms. Johnson said she was trying to make sense of her son's death.
"I do not understand, I'm talking about why," she said. "How could one be so devilish to shoot someone who has made a clear mistake and begs you to die?" It was a child running away. "
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