In the early morning of August 22, 2022, 17-year-old Dimitri Hayes was fatally shot in the shared bedroom he occupied with his twin brother on Young Knoll in the Redan area of DeKalb County, Georgia. Responding officers found Dimitri with a gunshot wound to the chin shortly before 3:30 a.m.; he was held by his stepfather and later died at a hospital.

Family members in the house described the shooting as accidental. Xavier Hayes, Dimitri’s twin, told police he was attempting to show Dimitri how to use a handgun and said he did not know it was loaded; a sister was also in the room and witnessed the incident. Despite those accounts, Xavier was arrested the same day and charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon as a first-offender minor, and he was held without bond.

The case left the family and community coping with the loss and with conflicting accounts about how the single shot was fired. Did anyone in the area see or hear anything that night, or have information about the gun involved?