Man sentenced to life for deadly 2018 shooting at Scottsdale apartment
Jaquez Emmanuel Cooper
SCOTTSDALE, Ga. - A 20-year-old man was sentenced to life for a deadly 2018 shooting at a Scottdale apartment complex all over a stolen phone. The DeKalb County District Attorney's Office said it is the first case tried under the newly formed Firearm Violence Prevention Unit.
Jaquez Emmanuel Cooper was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony on April 22. Cooper shot and killed 18-year-old Rene Betancourt Jr. at the Oak Forest Apartments on Hatton Drive in Scottdale on November 28, 2018.
During his trial, prosecutors outlined how Cooper shot Betancourt after confronting him over his missing cell phone. Betancourt had seen Cooper "rummaging" through his vehicle prior to the shooting. Angered by the accusation, Cooper eventually cornered Betancourt and shot him. The deadly shooting was caught on camera.
DeKalb County police investigate a deadly shooting at the Oak Forest Apartments on Hatton Drive in Scottdale on November 28, 2018. (FOX 5)
Prosecutors said witnesses were hesitant to talk due to the Cooper’s reputation to violence. He was eventually arrested on December 21, 2018.
"Now, disputes are not solved by words or even fists…people are pulling out guns," DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said in an interview Wednesday.
DeKalb Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams sentenced Cooper on Monday to life in prison plus 5 years to run consecutively.
DeKalb DA’s Firearm Violence Prevention Unit makes first conviction
This is the first conviction by newly formed Firearm Violence Prevention Unit. Boston said with easier access to firearms in Georgia and an increase in gun violence across the metro Atlanta area since the pandemic began, cases like this are becoming more common. According to data from the DA’s office, the county saw an increase in the number of homicide cases from 2020 to 2021 and 90 percent of those cases involved a firearm.
"In this particular case, it was a strong act of violence, of gun violence by a youthful offender, so it was one of those cases that we identified that we wanted to make a hard push so that the community would know that we were fighting to keep them safe," Boston said.
That’s where she said the county’s new Firearm Violence Prevention Unit comes into play. Its goal is to work with federal and local law enforcement to monitor gang activity, investigate and prosecute firearms cases—both legally and illegally obtained.
"We have an ADA, we have an investigator, we have a victim advocate, we have a social worker because we wanted to make sure that this was not an inward facing program but more importantly also an outward facing program," Boston explained.
The DA said the new unit created in March of this year isn’t just focused on investigation and prosecution but also educating people in the community who do own guns legally.
"We’ve already just this year had three fatalities here in DeKalb County of young children that died as a result of accidental discharges," Boston said.
Boston said the unit is the first of its kind in the State of Georgia and after getting its first conviction on Monday, officials said they look forward seeing the program’s continued impact.