The deadly August in Atlanta continued early Friday when a shooting at a Buckhead apartment building left a resident dead, according to police.
The man’s death was being investigated as the city’s 110th homicide of the year and the 19th so far this month. Police also investigated 19 homicides in March, according to department data.
Only a handful of homicides have been reported this year in Buckhead. But on Friday, a 30-year-old man was dead and two suspects were arrested on murder charges after what investigators believe was a drug-related botched robbery. One of the suspects was also injured by gunfire.
Officers were called to the Prominence Apartments at the corner of Lenox and Piedmont roads to investigate gunfire around 2 a.m. As they arrived, they received additional 911 calls reporting a person was shot, Atlanta police homicide commander Lt. Germain Dearlove told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the scene.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
The officers canvassed the building and saw two people in the back of the parking deck, including a man with a gunshot wound. They were both detained before officers found the victim dead inside his apartment, Dearlove said.
“The preliminary investigation shows that this is going to be a robbery with a nexus to narcotics involvement,” he said.
The victim was later identified by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office as 30-year-old Nader Farhat.
The two suspects were identified as Christopher Cyprian, 40, and Jameka Bagnerise, 44. Both have been charged with murder and armed robbery, according to police.
Cyprian was injured in the shooting and underwent surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital early Friday, police said. Bagnerise was interviewed at police headquarters and arrested.
Dearlove said homicide investigators were working to collect witness statements and evidence from the victim’s apartment. They had recovered one weapon from the scene Friday.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
The shooting was the second along Lenox Road in a matter of hours, according to police.
In an unrelated incident Thursday night, a 40-year-old woman was shot in the abdomen during an altercation, police said. It happened at the Lenox Place apartments at 2572 Lenox Road shortly before 8 p.m., according to police. The woman, whose name was not released, was alert when taken to the hospital.
Friday’s deadly shooting comes two months after a triple shooting in the 2200 block of Peachtree Road left 23-year-old Artez Benton of Scottdale dead. Music executive Chaka Zulu was injured in that shooting.
