A 20-year-old man named David Hayman was found dead in the front yard of a home on Watson Bay Trail in the Water’s Edge subdivision of Stone Mountain, Georgia, on the morning of Thursday, March 31, 2022. Neighbors reported hearing a commotion and gunfire around 11 p.m. the previous night. Hayman’s body had been concealed by bushes and was not discovered until the following morning.

Investigators collected bullets and an extended magazine clip at the scene. Officials determined Hayman had been pistol-whipped and then shot in the face during an altercation as he walked home; authorities say the victim and the attacker did not know one another. Within weeks the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit arrested 22-year-old Aurion Johnson of Stone Mountain. On Tuesday, April 26, 2022, Johnson was taken into custody at an apartment complex in Clarkston and charged with malice murder; he was booked into the DeKalb County Jail without bond.

Anyone who knew David Hayman, saw or heard anything near Watson Bay Trail that night, or has information about the case is asked to come forward.