#Roommates, let’s keep the family of 19-year-old #OmarianBanks in our prayers. Police said the young man was fatally shot after he knocked on the wrong apartment door in southwest #Atlanta early this morning.
The gunman is in custody, according to @wsbtv. Police said Omarian had got a ride home in a Lyft that dropped him off near the wrong breezeway sometime after midnight.
Police said Omarian and his girlfriend had just moved to the apartment and he wasn’t familiar with the area and he went to what he thought was his apartment – upstairs and to the left – but he was at the wrong door. While on FaceTime with his girlfriend, he knocked on the door and as he began to walk away, police said the man inside, identified as 32-year-old #DarrylBynes, grabbed a gun and went onto his balcony to confront Omarian before fatally shooting him.
The teen tried to explain to Bynes that it was a misunderstanding. “I heard him say, ‘Sorry, I’m at the wrong house.’ Then the man said, ‘No you’re not. N****, you at the right house.’ And he shot two more times,” Omarian’s girlfriend told wsbtv.
Another witness had a similar story to Omarian’s girlfriend.
“I see him running around the corner and all you hear him saying is, ‘I am sorry. It was the wrong door,’” a neighbor told the news station. “(He said), ‘You ain’t come to the wrong door’ and shot him a third time. I saw him drop to the ground.”
Police said Bynes told police that he shot Omarian in self-defense, but officers said he shot the teen from his balcony as Omarian was coming down the stairs as he was trying to get away.
Family friend Michael Wallace described Omarian as a hard-working young man who never bothered anybody.
“This is a 19-year-old child that didn’t even deserve to die, that hasn’t even lived his life,” Wallace said.
Bynes is charged with murder and is being held at the Fulton County Jail. Bynes’ family says they don’t think he should be charged with murder.
“He is an innocent father. He has five kids. He was protecting his family. His truck was stolen earlier this week, right now, he’s just trying to protect his family,” said Bynes’ cousin, Makayla Johnson.
Bynes will go before a judge Saturday morning. We’ll keep you posted on any updates.
TSR STAFF: Christina C! @cdelafresh
