The man accused of firing a shot that killed a 7-year-old girl who was Christmas shopping with her family in Buckhead is now in the Fulton County Jail, authorities confirmed.
Daquan Reed, 24, was extradited to Georgia after being arrested by U.S. Marshals in Hampton, Virginia, last month. He was booked into the Fulton jail on Tuesday, records show.
The Virginia native faces several charges, including felony murder, in the death of 7-year-old Kennedy Maxie.
Kennedy, who lived in Cobb County and attended Sedalia Park Elementary, died the day after Christmas last year. She had been in critical condition at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite since Dec. 21, when she was shot in the back of the head while riding in a car with her mother and aunt near Phipps Plaza.
Investigators said the shooting stemmed from a fight between Reed and other men in a mall parking lot. When the argument ended, Reed left the parking lot in a car, “and in a senseless act of rage, discharged a firearm out that window,” according to Atlanta homicide detective Lt. Pete Malecki. At least three shots were fired, and one entered the car Kennedy was riding in, Malecki said previously.
Kennedy’s aunt told detectives she heard the gunfire while driving along Peachtree Road near Phipps. Moments later, she realized Kennedy had been struck and drove straight to the hospital, where the little girl was rushed into surgery.
Investigators do not believe the family’s Lexus was the intended target of the shooting.
“What we believe right now is we have the sole shooter who killed Kennedy,” Malecki said when announcing warrants for Reed’s arrest.
Police obtained the warrants Dec. 29, and he was taken into custody on Jan. 6.
The fatal incident is the second mall shooting that authorities said implicated Reed, according to reports. In October 2019, Reed and another man were arrested by U.S. marshals in Atlanta in connection with a shooting at MacArthur Center Mall in Norfolk, Virginia. That shooting stemmed from a confrontation involving a third man and left that man and a 56-year-old bystander injured.
Reed pleaded guilty to a count of accessory after the fact. According to Norfolk General District Court records, he was sentenced to a year in prison with nine months suspended, meaning he spent three months behind bars from the day after his sentence was announced. Prior to the shootings, Reed had “several cycles” in the criminal justice system, including a 2018 conviction for forgery, according to Malecki.
In addition to felony murder, Reed is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and reckless conduct in connection with Kennedy’s death.
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