In the late hours of an April night in 2016, a sequence of events unfolded outside a Burger King on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway in Atlanta that would leave two men dead. One of those men was Quincy Wytche, a 22-year-old male. On April 24, Wytche was found severely injured with gunshot wounds in the parking lot of a Petro gas station next to the Burger King.
He was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, but succumbed to his injuries and passed away the following day.
The investigation into the shooting revealed a complex and tragic story. Initially, police found the body of another man, 24-year-old Reginald 'Reggie' Coicou, inside a car riddled with bullets at the Burger King. Coicou, a bouncer at a nearby nightclub, was pronounced dead at the scene. As detectives delved deeper, they uncovered a plot for a robbery that had gone horribly wrong. It was determined that Wytche was an accomplice in a plan to rob Coicou, with the robbery disguised as a drug transaction. The entire violent encounter was captured by surveillance cameras from the Burger King and the adjacent gas station.
The primary suspect in the shootings was identified as Nicholas Benton. The investigation revealed that Wytche and Benton had planned to rob Coicou. During the commission of the crime, Benton opened fire, shooting Coicou multiple times. In a tragic turn of events, Benton also unintentionally shot his accomplice, Quincy Wytche. A third individual, Carlton Redding, who was driving the vehicle Coicou was in, fled the scene on foot but was apprehended by police shortly after.
Following an investigation that involved piecing together evidence from the crime scene, witness statements, and surveillance footage, Nicholas Benton was arrested on June 6, 2016. He was subsequently charged with the murders of both Reginald Coicou and Quincy Wytche. On July 14, 2017, a jury found Nicholas Benton guilty on a host of charges, including murder, felony murder, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. For his role in the deadly botched robbery, Benton was sentenced to life in prison.
