A late Wednesday evening in September 2016 turned tragic in a Scottdale-area apartment in DeKalb County, just outside of Atlanta. Inside his home on Hatton Drive, 28-year-old Anthony Greg Johnson was in his living room with several visitors. The scene was a domestic one, with a friend and his family, including a two-year-old boy, also present. Two other children, aged nine and eleven, were in a back room of the apartment.
Suddenly, the front door was forced open, and the calm was shattered by a barrage of gunfire.
The living room was sprayed with bullets by the unknown assailants. When the shooting stopped, Anthony Greg Johnson lay dead on the sofa from gunshot wounds to his head, leg, and arm. Miraculously, the two-year-old child who had been next to him was unharmed. However, the child's father, a 30-year-old man from Lithonia, and a 32-year-old neighbor of Johnson's were also shot and critically wounded. The two older children in the back of the apartment were not physically injured.
When DeKalb County police arrived, they found a chaotic scene with multiple gunshot holes in the walls, sofa, and window, and numerous spent shell casings littered the living room. Authorities later stated that the preliminary motive appeared to be drug-related, though they did not provide further details. Despite the number of people present in the apartment, witnesses were reportedly unable to provide police with a clear description of the shooters or even how many assailants were involved. As of the initial reports, no suspects have been publicly identified, and no arrests have been announced in the case. The investigation into the violent home invasion that claimed the life of Anthony Greg Johnson and injured two others remains unresolved.
