An Atlanta man who shot and killed a teenage neighbor who accidentally knocked at his door four years ago was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Fulton County prosecutors said.
A jury found Darryl Bynes guilty of murder and five other charges in the March 2019 killing of 19-year-old Omarian Banks.
Witnesses said Bynes killed his neighbor at the Retreat at Marketplace apartments along Fairburn Road, then told 911 dispatchers he acted in self-defense. When Atlanta police officers arrived, they found Banks lying in the grass with wounds to his neck and waist. He died at the scene.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
After being detained, Bynes told officers that the man had tried to break into his second-floor apartment. In response, he told police he locked his door, grabbed his Smith & Wesson and stepped out onto his balcony before firing the deadly shots.
At trial, however, several neighbors testified they heard Banks apologize to Bynes for knocking at the wrong apartment. Bynes fired three rounds as the victim ran away, authorities said, one of which entered the living room of a unit across the parking lot where two children lived.
Though Bynes and Banks both lived in the complex, they did not know each other. Investigators said Banks likely believed he was at the apartment he shared with his girlfriend after being dropped off in front of the wrong breezeway.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
“He called me and he said open the door because he was getting a Lyft home, but when I opened the door I didn’t see him,” Banks’ girlfriend said at the time. “Then I hear one gunshot, and after that, I hear him yell, ‘I’m sorry, bro. I’m at the wrong house.’”
She said she then heard her neighbor tell her boyfriend, “Nah, (expletive), you’re not at the wrong house,” before firing two more times.
She ran downstairs to find Banks lying in the grass.
“I turned him over and that’s when I seen the gunshot wound to his neck and blood all over him,” she said.
In addition to murder, the jury found Bynes guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, criminal damage to property and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The 36-year-old was sentenced Friday to life in prison, plus an additional 15 years.
“A young man was shot dead because he knocked on the wrong door,” District Attorney Fani Willis said in a news release. “It is an absolute shame that we are losing our youth to people responding to minor inconveniences with firearms. I’m keeping Mr. Banks’ family in my prayers, and I hope they find some comfort in this conviction.”
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