In the early morning hours of March 31, 2021, the life of 58-year-old Benny Glass of Lithonia, Georgia, was tragically cut short in what his family described as a robbery. The events unfolded at the intersection of Hillandale Drive and Lithonia Industrial Boulevard, where police responded to a call about a person being shot.
Upon arrival, DeKalb County police officers discovered a damaged vehicle with its headlights off. As they approached, the driver, later identified as 57-year-old Willie Roy Allen of Lithonia, sped away. This initiated a brief chase that ended when Allen exited the car, allowing it to roll down the street and collide with a parked vehicle. While officers pursued Allen on foot and attempted to use a Taser to subdue him, he brandished a firearm. In the ensuing confrontation, multiple officers shot and tasered Allen, who died at the scene.
After the chase concluded, police made a grim discovery inside the car Allen had been driving. They found Benny Glass, who had sustained a fatal gunshot wound. According to Glass's sister, her brother was shot inside his own Jeep Cherokee during the robbery. She recounted being told that the assailant shot her brother, pushed him into the passenger seat, took his money, and then fled in the vehicle before crashing.
The DeKalb County Police Department handled the investigation into Benny Glass's death. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was also involved, as is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings, to investigate the death of the suspect, Willie Roy Allen.
