A 22-year-old man is behind bars after Atlanta police say he gunned down a teenager behind a southwest Atlanta shopping plaza in late 2025, a killing that rattled one of the city’s busiest corridors.
Investigators say the suspect, Anthony Moreland, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the November 29, 2025 shooting that left a 17-year-old dead behind a shopping center on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The victim’s name has not been released.
Arrest and charges
Police said officers, working with the U.S. Marshals, took Moreland into custody on Wednesday and booked him into the Fulton County Jail on murder and “possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony” charges, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Authorities described the arrest as the latest development in an active homicide investigation rather than the end of the story.
Where it happened
The shooting happened on Nov. 29, 2025, behind a shopping plaza in the 3000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, where officers found a 17-year-old suffering from gunshot wounds, according to the Atlanta Police Department. The teen later died.
In the days that followed, APD and local outlets circulated an image of a person of interest and urged witnesses to speak up. That appeal included coverage of the fatal teen shooting at MLK Drive shopping center, as detectives tried to piece together what led up to the gunfire behind the plaza.
Investigation details
Lt. Christopher Butler of APD’s homicide unit said the deadly encounter appeared to begin as an argument and that investigators have what he called “good” security footage of the incident, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Detectives are still combing through surveillance video and interviewing witnesses as they build the case for prosecutors.
What’s next
Moreland remains in the Fulton County Jail on the murder and weapons-possession counts while investigators coordinate with prosecutors, per the Atlanta Police Department. Police are still asking anyone who knows more about what happened that night to contact the department or Crime Stoppers.
