On the night of June 12 into the early morning of June 13, 2014, 18-year-old Darius Bottoms was driving in southwest Atlanta after playing video games with a friend when his car was ambushed. A hail of gunfire struck Bottoms in the head, killing him; his passenger survived. Bottoms was a college student at Atlanta Metropolitan State College studying business and had no gang affiliation. Investigators concluded he had been wrongfully identified as a rival gang member, part of retaliatory street-gang violence in the area.

Months after the killing, a ballistic test linked a gun found on a man already in custody, 18-year-old David Wallace, to the bullets that killed Bottoms. That lead resulted in the arrests and indictments of David Dajunta Wallace, Rashad Barber, and Ryan Bowdery on charges including murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and participation in criminal street gang activity. The first trial ended in a mistrial in August 2017 because a juror conducted an independent investigation; a second trial followed and in December 2017 a jury convicted all three. Sentences included life terms plus additional years: Barber received life plus 25 years, Bowdery life plus 10 years, and Wallace life plus five years.