Devan Markette Jackson was 17 when he was fatally shot in the early morning hours of October 15, 2021, at a home on Mount Vista Road in Stone Mountain, Georgia. DeKalb County police found him with multiple gunshot wounds around 4 a.m.; he was taken to a hospital and later died. The shooting happened during a fight involving several people at the residence, and Jackson’s mother says he was robbed when the fatal shots were fired. He was a senior at Stephenson High School and active in JROTC, planning to enlist in the U.S. Navy after graduation.

On October 20, 2021, 18-year-old Cortez Damon Florence of Lithonia was arrested and charged with malice murder and held without bond. Jackson’s family, particularly his mother, maintains that the person who fired the fatal shots remains at large and that the arrested suspect was involved in the robbery but was not the shooter. Anyone with information about the shooting or who was present that night is asked to come forward.