In the late afternoon of June 3, 2015, a dispute in the parking lot of the A2B Budget Hotel on Ember Drive in Panthersville, Georgia, ended in the tragic death of 32-year-old Thearon Lee Almond. A security guard at the hotel, 25-year-old Deontray Cooper, became involved in a verbal altercation with Almond and sought to have him removed from the property.
Although the security guards at the hotel were not supposed to be armed, Cooper retrieved a personal handgun during the confrontation.
The argument escalated, and Cooper shot Almond. A witness to the incident captured the moments leading up to the shooting on a cellphone video. Almond was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Following the incident, Cooper was arrested and subsequently charged with murder. He was held in the DeKalb County Jail.
In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, Thearon Almond's family filed a lawsuit against the A2B Budget Hotel, alleging negligence. The lawsuit contended that the hotel was aware that their security guards were armed, despite a policy against it. The family's legal action also claimed that after Almond was shot, hotel employees failed to render aid as he lay bleeding in the parking lot.
Friends and family of Almond described him as a man with a good heart. His girlfriend stated that she and Almond had been staying at the hotel and that the security guards had been harassing him. His brother lamented that he was killed while he was in the process of leaving the property. A makeshift memorial of candles, balloons, and flowers was created by loved ones in the parking lot where he lost his life.
