In the early morning hours of May 10, 2014, a night out in Athens, Georgia, turned tragic for 22-year-old Derrick Lee Merritt Jr., a male who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. As patrons spilled out of the Bootleggers nightclub onto Commerce Road after closing, a dispute broke out in a nearby vacant parking lot. The altercation, which did not involve Merritt, escalated quickly and violently.
Amid the chaos, shots were fired from a passing car into the crowd.
Merritt was struck by the gunfire and was rushed to a local Athens hospital, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries. Another man, Jamaris Walter, was also shot and seriously wounded in the incident but survived. Authorities later confirmed that both Merritt and Walter were innocent bystanders who had no part in the initial conflict that led to the shooting. The senseless act of violence cut short the life of a young man and left another with lasting injuries.
The investigation into the shooting led Athens-Clarke County police to identify 33-year-old Corey Antwan Blount of Atlanta as the suspected gunman. On July 9, 2014, Blount was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office. He faced a litany of charges, including malice murder, felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
In October 2015, Corey Blount stood trial for the murder of Derrick Merritt and the assault on Jamaris Walter. During the trial, witnesses testified about the fight that preceded the shooting. Evidence presented showed that after his girlfriend was involved in the altercation, Blount fired a gun from the passenger side of a moving vehicle into the crowd of people in the parking lot. Despite Blount's claim that he was responding to thrown bottles and other gunfire, investigators found no evidence at the scene to support his assertion. The jury found Corey Antwan Blount guilty on all charges. His conviction was later upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2018.
