In the early hours of a Wednesday morning in Union City, Georgia, the life of 35-year-old Reginald Folks was tragically cut short. Working as a Lyft driver to earn extra money, he had dreams of one day becoming a professional wrestler. On May 15, 2024, around 12:30 a.m., he was giving a ride to a passenger along South Fulton Parkway when the fatal encounter occurred.
That passenger was Koby Minor, an off-duty Atlanta police officer who would later claim the ride felt like a kidnapping attempt.
Minor, who was leaving another officer's house, alleged that he became alarmed when Folks began speaking on the phone in a language he didn't recognize. According to Minor's account to police, he heard another voice and believed he was being abducted as part of a 'gay fraternity' recruitment. He claimed he asked to be let out of the vehicle, but Folks continued driving. When the car stopped at a red light, Minor said he tried to open the door but found it locked. He told investigators that when Folks reached into the back seat, he feared for his life and fired his gun multiple times, striking him. After the shooting, Minor broke a window to escape the car and flagged down another driver for help.
The suspect, Koby Minor, a Marine veteran who had been with the Atlanta Police Department since 2018, was arrested at the scene. At the time of the shooting, he was already on unpaid administrative leave following a December 2023 arrest for drug possession. He resigned from the police force immediately following his arrest for Folks's death. Initially charged with murder and aggravated assault, the case moved through the justice system.
In court, Minor's defense argued that a combination of PTSD, alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs led to a psychotic break on the night of the shooting. In October 2025, Koby Minor pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter. Expressing his remorse to the victim's family in a courtroom filled with emotion, he apologized for his actions. The judge sentenced him to 29 years in prison for his role in the death of Reginald Folks, a sentence that also encompassed his prior drug and DUI charges. Folks's family remembered him as a loving, hard-working man who was the life of the party, and they expressed their profound grief and inability to forgive his killer.
