A 7-year-old boy, Zayre Jerome Daugherty, died after being shot in the head at a gas station on Rock Chapel Road in Lithonia, Georgia. The shooting occurred on September 4, 2023, while Zayre and his 6-year-old brother were left alone in an SUV by their father, 44-year-old Dante Lamar Daugherty. A loaded handgun was inside the vehicle; surveillance video from the station shows movement inside the parked SUV followed by a flash consistent with a firearm discharge. Zayre was found with a fatal head wound and died at the scene.

It is not clear whether the weapon was fired by the younger brother or discharged in some other way. The father was arrested and charged following the incident. Zayre was remembered by his community as a football player at Gresham Park, and family, friends, and teammates held a balloon release in his honor.

If anyone has information about what happened at the gas station that day, please come forward.