Malik Dieonte Heard, a 17-year-old Black male from Atlanta, was shot and killed on May 31, 2024, in the city’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. At approximately 5:58 p.m., Atlanta police officers were dispatched to 375 Boulevard NE following a report of a person shot. The location is near Wabash Avenue and was described in local reporting as being near a convenience store. When officers arrived, they found Heard suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.
He was unresponsive and not breathing, and medical personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office later publicly identified the victim as Malik Heard. Atlanta Police Department homicide investigators responded that evening and began working to establish what had led to the shooting. At the time of the initial investigation, police did not publicly identify a suspect or disclose a motive or the circumstances immediately preceding the gunfire.
For several months, publicly available information about the investigation remained limited. That changed on November 19, 2024, when the Atlanta Police Department announced a significant arrest in the case. The department’s Fugitive Unit took Demarious Harkness, whose date of birth was listed by police as December 2005, into custody without incident. Harkness was then transported to the Fulton County Jail. Police said he would be charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. A separate Fulton County booking record published online also records Harkness as having been booked on November 19, 2024. The Atlanta Police Department’s announcement did not describe what evidence led investigators to Harkness, whether investigators believed he acted alone, what relationship—if any—existed between Heard and Harkness, or what police believed motivated the shooting.
The arrest represented a major development from the initial police account, which had said only that homicide detectives were investigating the circumstances of the shooting. Police subsequently characterized the case as a homicide arrest and publicly tied Harkness to the May 31 incident at 375 Boulevard NE through the charges announced against him. The available police release does not identify additional suspects, announce additional arrests, or provide a detailed narrative of how the shooting unfolded. It also cautions that information released during an investigation is preliminary and can change as additional evidence is developed.
Heard’s death was followed by funeral services in June 2024. His obituary states that a public viewing was held on June 14 at R.W. Andrews Mortuary and that funeral services took place the following day, June 15, at the mortuary chapel, followed by interment at Lincoln Cemetery. Publicly searchable online sources located for the case document Harkness’s arrest and the announced criminal charges, but they do not provide a reliable subsequent account of a trial verdict, guilty plea, sentencing, acquittal, dismissal, or other final disposition of the prosecution. Accordingly, Harkness should be regarded as an accused person in the available record rather than as someone proven guilty of Heard’s killing unless and until a court record or authoritative later report establishes such an outcome.
