One of the suspects in last year’s fatal, rap rivalry-fueled shooting at a Gwinnett hotel killed himself last week as authorities surrounded a DeKalb County apartment to serve his arrest warrant, officials said.
Cory Marzette was 22 years old on June 11, 2014, when police believe he and an unidentified man walked into the Quality Inn on Duluth’s Venture Parkway and fired into a crowd of people gathered to celebrate Migos, a Gwinnett-born, nationally known rap trio.
Paris Brown, 23, was killed in the chaos. He was not specifically targeted, police have said.
Marzette was named as a suspect and charged with murder shortly after the shooting, but was never arrested. Officials said representatives from the U.S. Marshals, Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office and DeKalb County Police Department were trying to do just that Thursday night when they descended upon the Landmark Apartments near Stone Mountain.
According to a DeKalb police incident report, marshals approaching the apartment where they believed Marzette to be residing first encountered a woman, who “began to yell and panic” before backing out of the apartment. Marzette was then spotted looking out of a window before quickly closing the blinds, officials said.
“Mr. Marzette then fired a gunshot round through the living room door and then fired a second shot through the bedroom door,” the incident report said. “Mr. Marzette then backed his body into the corner of his bedroom and committed suicide with the semi auto handgun.”
Authorities then entered the apartment, and Marzette was pronounced dead when a medical examiner arrived.
No shots were fired by any law enforcement officers on scene, DeKalb police spokesman Capt. S.R. Fore said.
It was unclear Monday if the second suspect in the 2014 shooting was ever identified or apprehended. Both he and Marzette were believed to be affiliates of a group called 2G, which a Gwinnett County police spokesman previously described as “as much criminal street gang as rap group.”
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