An argument on a summer afternoon in Atlanta turned deadly for 18-year-old Markeith Deangelo Oliver on July 7, 2017. The young African American man was selling water at a gas station on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive NW when a dispute with people he knew escalated to gunfire. Witnesses reported hearing three gunshots, and Oliver was struck multiple times.
The suspects fled the scene, leaving Oliver's family and friends stunned and seeking answers when they arrived at the tragic scene in an overgrown area across from a cemetery.
Remembered by his family as a quiet, respectful person with a passion for basketball, his mother also described him as a great guy and a leader in his community. She believes jealousy may have been a motive for the shooting. The scene was tense as loved ones gathered, grappling with the sudden and violent loss of the recent high school graduate.
The Atlanta Police Department's investigation led them to two twin brothers. After questioning, one of the brothers was released. The other, 18-year-old Garrison Carreker, was identified as the shooter and arrested. He was subsequently charged with murder.
The case against Garrison Carreker proceeded through the legal system, and he was ultimately convicted for the murder of Markeith Oliver. He is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for the crime. Tragically, less than five years after Markeith's death, his younger brother, 15-year-old Kelvice Roberson Jr., was also shot and killed in Atlanta, compounding the family's grief. Their mother has had to endure the pain of losing two sons to gun violence, and both are now buried side-by-side.
