A person was shot at an apartment complex in Lithonia on Sunday, according to DeKalb County Police, who responded to 2795 Evans Mill Road and found one victim with serious injuries. The shooting remains under investigation as a developing story.
The address belongs to Stonecrest Mill Apartment Homes, according to Atlanta News First, which first reported the shooting. Details on the victim's condition, a possible suspect, or what led to the gunfire have not been released.
This is not the first time gunfire has struck the 280-unit complex off Interstate 20. In March 2023, 31-year-old Derricka Body was shot to death inside a unit at Stonecrest Mill during what investigators described as a domestic violence case, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reported that the victim's mother identified the crime through doorbell camera footage before police issued a search warrant and murder charge.
A Property With A Documented History
The complex, built in 1971 and previously known as The Oaks at Stonecrest and Evans Mill Place, was included in the AJC's Dangerous Dwellings investigative series. That reporting found DeKalb County Police documented 191 crimes at the property between 2017 and July 2023, including 33 aggravated assaults and a homicide.
The property's troubled record stretches back further still. In March 2017, a DeKalb County Police officer was arrested after being accused of stealing $231 and tampering with evidence while assigned to secure a unit at the same address during a forced-entry drug investigation, per an earlier report from 11Alive. The officer resigned immediately after internal detectives made their findings.
Countywide Numbers Tell A Different Story
The shooting comes even as county officials and police leadership have touted broad declines in violent crime. DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson announced in July 2025 that homicides countywide were down 34% year-to-date as officials deployed targeted public safety resources into high-crime corridors. During public briefings this month, the DeKalb County Police Department reported year-over-year reductions in homicides, violent crime, and property crime across the jurisdiction, according to 11Alive.
Still, the Major Cities Chiefs Association recorded 18 homicides in DeKalb County during the first quarter of 2026 alone, underscoring that violent crime has not disappeared even as trend lines point downward. Separately, DeKalb County Police vehicle pursuits jumped from 17 in 2024 to 99 in 2025 after county policy adjustments aimed at cracking down on fleeing suspects, according to WABE, a shift in tactics that has drawn scrutiny even as county leaders point to falling crime statistics.
Part Of A Broader Pattern Along The I-20 Corridor
Sunday's shooting is the latest in a string of gun violence incidents Hoodline has tracked across Lithonia and south DeKalb County in recent months. Just two days earlier, DeKalb County Police investigated a shooting near a QuikTrip on Turner Hill Road that left one victim injured and a car riddled with bullet holes, part of a violent stretch along the I-20 corridor that has also included shootings outside a Lithonia home on Holt Road, at a local strip mall, near a Chevron station, and in a busy Publix parking lot since May.
The recurring violence at multifamily properties like Stonecrest Mill also raises questions about landlord accountability under Georgia's newer tenant protection law. The Safe at Home Act, House Bill 404, took effect in July 2024 and requires residential rental properties to be maintained fit for human habitation while capping security deposits, according to a Georgia State University Law Review analysis. The law followed years of investigative reporting on dangerous conditions at apartment complexes across metro Atlanta.
No arrests have been announced in connection with Sunday's shooting, and police have not released information about a motive or suspect. Hoodline will update this story as more information becomes available.
