On the evening of January 26, 2017, 24-year-old Deaundre Phillips was shot and killed in the parking lot of an Atlanta Police Department annex on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway. Phillips, a father, was sitting alone in a friend’s car when two plainclothes detectives who said they smelled marijuana approached. According to the police account, Phillips briefly exited the vehicle, lunged back into the driver’s seat and began to drive away; Investigator Yasim Abdulahad, who was partially inside the passenger side, fired a single fatal shot. A handgun was later found on the car’s floorboard and initial GBI reporting did not say Phillips had reached for it.

Phillips’ family and their attorney disputed the police narrative, saying he may have been asleep and startled, and that surveillance footage contradicted claims the officer was dragged by the car. The video was said to show the officer fully inside the vehicle when the shot was fired. The GBI referred its findings to the Fulton County DA in May 2017. In August 2021 the district attorney announced no prosecution of Abdulahad, concluding the officer was inside the car as it moved and that Phillips was moving toward the gun when shot. Phillips’ family and supporters continued to seek answers.