In a tragic turn of events stemming from a seemingly minor dispute, 34-year-old Rodney 'Rod' Benton was shot and killed in Atlanta, Georgia, in June 2016. The incident, which began with a disagreement over an EBT card, escalated into a fatal act of violence that ended with a man taking his brother-in-law's life. The shooter was identified as Nathaniel Mathis, the brother of Benton's girlfriend.
The conflict began when Benton's girlfriend attempted to use her brother's EBT card as a form
of rent payment, only to find the PIN had been changed. An argument ensued over the phone between Mathis and his sister. Later that day, as Benton and his girlfriend sat in their SUV outside their home on Polar Rock Road in southwest Atlanta, Mathis approached the vehicle. After yelling, “you know what's going on,” Mathis fired a handgun eight times, striking and killing Benton.
Following the shooting, Mathis fled to a nearby park, where he initiated a standoff with police that lasted for several hours. During the standoff, Mathis held a. 40 caliber pistol to his own head and expressed suicidal threats. A SWAT team was called to the scene and eventually subdued Mathis by firing beanbags at him, leading to his arrest. He reportedly expressed remorse to a witness in the park, asking them to tell his sister that he 'just snapped' and 'didn't mean it to happen this way.'
Nathaniel Mathis was subsequently charged with murder, possession of a firearm by a first offender probationer, and criminal damage to property. He was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life in prison. An appeal was later filed challenging the sufficiency of the evidence and claiming ineffective assistance of trial counsel, but the conviction was ultimately upheld.
