A DeKalb County Superior Court judge sentenced 21-year-old William Cooper to life without the possibility of parole plus five years on Wednesday for gunning down 28-year-old Delantay Johnson outside a Lithonia gas station in March 2025. Cooper had told officers at the scene that he acted in self-defense, but surveillance video from the gas station's cameras told a different story, one that ultimately convinced a jury to convict him of malice murder.
Judge LaTisha Dear Jackson handed down the sentence immediately after the DeKalb County jury returned its verdict on August 13, according to 11Alive. Jurors found Cooper guilty on all counts, including felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta.
The shooting happened on March 6, 2025, at a gas station in the 7000 block of Covington Highway in Lithonia. DeKalb County police responded to reports of a fatal shooting and found Johnson lying face down in the parking lot, per FOX 5 Atlanta's reporting. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where he died of a gunshot wound to the back, according to a DeKalb County District Attorney's Office release.
Video Contradicted Cooper's Self-Defense Claim
Cooper admitted to officers that he was the shooter and initially claimed self-defense, per the district attorney's release. He told police the confrontation stemmed from an earlier argument that day and accused Johnson of threatening him. Cooper also claimed Johnson had left the gas station and returned with a gun, and that Johnson pulled a weapon from his waistband, though surveillance footage did not bear that part of his account out.
Instead, the video showed Cooper circling the gas pumps in a white Volvo before approaching Johnson and firing shots from his car window. Johnson tried to crawl toward the convenience store for help, but the footage showed Cooper stopping his car, getting out, and shooting Johnson several more times as he attempted to get away.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for Cooper's cell phone and found text messages in which he complained that Johnson had allegedly taken a stolen gun from him and said he planned to hurt Johnson if he saw him again, according to the district attorney's office. Authorities have not identified the person Cooper was texting about the stolen gun, and prosecutors have not provided additional details about the weapon Cooper claimed Johnson took. It also remains unestablished whether Cooper and Johnson knew each other before the shooting.
Surveillance Mandate Played a Central Role
The footage that undercut Cooper's account exists because of a county rule. Under DeKalb County's mandatory Video Surveillance System ordinance, updated in February 2024, gas stations and other high-risk businesses must run continuous 24/7 high-definition camera monitoring covering both parking areas and gas pumps, according to WSB-TV. County officials designated gas and service stations as the county's primary commercial locations for violent crime when they enacted the mandate, per DeKalb County government.
That surveillance requirement proved legally decisive. Georgia's self-defense statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-3-21, only justifies deadly force when a person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent death or serious harm, and it explicitly denies that protection to an initial aggressor, according to legal analysis of the statute. With video showing Cooper firing first and continuing to shoot as Johnson tried to flee, his self-defense claim did not hold up under that standard.
Prosecution and Sentencing
DeKalb County police took Cooper into custody on the afternoon of the shooting after interviewing him at the scene, initially booking him on a malice murder charge, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The case was ultimately prosecuted through the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office's Homicide and Gangs Unit, which handles the county's major homicide cases under District Attorney Sherry Boston, per the DA's office.
Under Georgia law, a malice murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, life without parole, or death, and requires proof of express or implied intent to unlawfully take a life, according to legal reference site Justia Law. Cooper's life-without-parole sentence, plus an additional five years for the firearm charge, falls within that statutory framework.
Part of a Troubling Pattern Along Covington Highway
Cooper's case is not an isolated incident along the Covington Highway corridor in Lithonia. Just one day after Johnson was killed, another fatal shooting occurred outside a different gas station on Covington Highway during a dispute over a car part, according to FOX 5 Atlanta's coverage of that separate case. Hoodline has previously reported on a string of violent incidents at gas stations in the area, including a shooting over a dollar request, a Stonecrest gas station killing that also ended in a murder conviction, and a stabbing of a DeKalb County officer at a Covington Highway Chevron.
Federal law enforcement agencies, including the ATF, regularly coordinate with Boston's office to prosecute illegal firearm possession and straw purchases tied to violent crime in the county, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. That partnership reflects a broader effort to address gun violence in a county where officials have already moved to tighten camera requirements at the commercial sites they consider most prone to it.
