A 22-year-old man has been handed a 20-year sentence following a gunfight that erupted in the Perimeter Mall food court earlier this year, leaving bystanders scrambling for safety. According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the DeKalb County jury on December 13 found Raymon Pierre guilty of aggravated assault in the January shooting.
The chaotic scene unfolded on January 6, around 4:45 p.m., when Dunwoody police responded to the shots fired inside the bustling mall. Fleeing in terror, shoppers were met by the police as they arrived, witnessing the tail end of the violence that had ensued. Lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to his chest, 20-year-old Che’saun Lacey was found by officers, as reported by Atlanta News First.
Witnesses described a dispute between Lacey and three other men, including Pierre, which rapidly devolved into a gunfight. "I was eating my burrito and I heard bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," Haynes Vicente, a witness at the food court, told FOX 5 Atlanta. "I just got up, grabbed my girl, and we ran." Surveillance footage revealed the bitter altercation, showing Lacey and another man, identified as 21-year-old Roykell Holder, exchanging gunfire.
Following the incident, police linked the 911 call reporting Holder's gunshot wound to the car used by Holder, Pierre, and a third, yet unidentified, man to flee the mall. Found at an apartment complex close by, Pierre and Holder were subsequently arrested. Holder's trial, along with Lacey's, remains pending, Atlanta News First reports.
Pierre's conviction comes with six years of confinement and the balance on probation. A stern reminder of the consequences of his actions, the judge has barred him from setting foot in any DeKalb County malls as a condition of his release.
