In the late hours of a Saturday evening, a party's youthful energy soured into a scene of violence that claimed the life of 16-year-old Nasir Davis. The male teenager, a resident of Lithonia, Georgia, was attending a gathering in the 1900 block of Scenic Highway in Snellville on February 17, 2024, when a fight broke out among a large group of people. As Snellville police officers were arriving at the chaotic scene around 10:45 p.m., they heard the sound of gunshots.
They discovered Davis with a gunshot wound to his chest. He was rushed to a local hospital, but his injuries proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the homicide was quickly taken over by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at the request of the Snellville Police Department. Their inquiries led them to identify 17-year-old Keegan Gates of Decatur as the suspected shooter. Investigators believe that Gates and Davis were acquainted with each other and that Gates shot Davis during the altercation at the party. The day after the shooting, on February 19, 2024, Keegan Gates was arrested and booked into the Gwinnett County Jail. He is facing a slate of serious charges, including felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a person under 18.
The case took another turn when the suspect's mother, Lakeisha Freeman, became implicated in the investigation. A warrant was issued for her arrest, and she was subsequently charged with willful obstruction of law enforcement officers and tampering with evidence. Authorities allege that Freeman instructed her son to delete evidence from his cellphone, including text messages and social media accounts, that she knew was pertinent to the ongoing homicide investigation. While the family of Nasir Davis expressed gratitude for the swift arrest of the primary suspect, they remain devastated by the loss of the young man who was remembered as being in good spirits just before the tragic incident.
