David Antonio Lucas Jr., a 13-year-old Black male from Atlanta, was one of the children caught in a devastating family massacre on July 12, 1999, when gunfire tore through the home where he was staying with relatives. Reports identify the killer as Cyrano A. Marks, the boyfriend of David’s mother, Deleane Briskey. What began as a domestic dispute ended in a scene of almost unimaginable loss: Briskey was killed, along with David, his brother Antuan Lucas, Briskey’s children Craig DeCarlo
Briskey and Torsha Briskey, and Briskey’s sister, Essie Jo Hugley. One child, 11-year-old Santonio Lucas, survived after being wounded, later telling police that Marks forced him through the house during the attack and that the gun misfired when it could have killed him too.
David’s death was not treated as a mystery with unknown offenders. Authorities and later news accounts consistently named Marks as the suspect in the killings, describing him as a disgruntled boyfriend or estranged partner whose rage was directed at the family inside the Atlanta home. The horror of the crime rippled outward because of how personal it was: this was not a random shooting, but an attack inside a household, against people who knew the gunman and should have been safe behind their own door. In the aftermath, David’s father, David Lucas Sr., spoke publicly about the surviving boy’s pain, underscoring just how shattered the family had been in a matter of moments. Funeral records and memorial records confirm David’s death date and place him among the family members buried and mourned after the massacre.
As for arrests and prosecution, the case effectively ended at the scene. Multiple sources state that Marks killed himself the same day after murdering six members of the family, so there was no arrest, no trial, and no conviction for David Antonio Lucas Jr.’s killing. Some later reporting noted that Marks had previously faced a murder charge years earlier in the death of an airline employee, but that case had been thrown out for insufficient evidence. That detail has lingered around the story because it deepened the sense that the danger he posed had not fully disappeared before the killings in Atlanta. Even so, in David’s own case, the identified suspect was never brought into custody because he died before the justice system could move forward.
