In the fall of 2016, a 33-year-old man named Christopher Dean from Lithia Springs, Georgia, was lured to an Atlanta home under the pretense of a drug transaction. This invitation, however, was a trap set by members of the Gangster Disciples street gang who had discovered that Dean had once served as a police witness in a case in California. What unfolded was a brutal and horrific ordeal that authorities would later describe as one of the most vicious murders in recent Atlanta history.
For over an hour, Dean was tortured by his assailants. He was beaten with a two-by-four and a crowbar, and the attack was so severe that it left his skull depressed. After the prolonged and brutal assault, Dean was shot twice in the back of the head, ending his life. His attackers then placed his body in the trunk of a car. Initially, there was a plan to burn the vehicle to destroy the evidence, but the individuals tasked with this grim job instead abandoned the car in the parking lot of the H.E. Holmes MARTA station.
The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of multiple individuals associated with the Gangster Disciples. Several men were convicted on charges including murder and participation in criminal street gang activity. The ringleader, Christopher Lockett, along with Xavier Gibson, Quatez Clark, Joshua Rooks, and Jasper Green, all received life sentences for their roles in the murder. Another man, Orlando Gibson, pleaded guilty to several charges, including felony murder, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 15 years of probation. A seventh individual, Shakur Wright, pleaded guilty to two murders, including Dean's, and received two life sentences plus 40 years. An eighth man, Lamar Almon, was also implicated. The trials and sentencing brought some measure of justice for what was a calculated and extraordinarily violent crime, carried out to send a message about cooperating with law enforcement.
