Trial begins for the murder of a 7-year-old girl shot near Phipps Plaza
Trial begins for 7-year-old girl killed near Phipps Plaza
Atlanta police say that 24-year Dequan Reed is facing charges after he was accused of shooting 7-year-old Kennedy Maxie near Phipps Plaza while she was riding in the car a few days before Christmas, where officials pronounced her dead days later.
ATLANTA - The man police accused of killing seven-year-old Kennedy Maxie is now on trial.
Dequan Reed, 24, faces charges including felony murder and reckless endangerment, in addition to gun charges.
Detectives say Reed shot Maxie while riding in the car with her family returning from a day of Christmas shopping in Buckhead near Phipps Plaza in 2020.
On the day after Christmas, she died.
The jury heard of the charges against Reed on Friday. Both prosecutors and Reed’s defense team gave their opening statements.
The prosecutor claimed that Reed fired the gun in the parking lot in a fit of rage after someone held him up.
"In a rage over being robbed of a cell phone and his money the defendant, Daquan Reed, a convicted felon, picked up his Glock 9 mm pistol and fired it," Asst. District Attorney Par Dutcher said.
The attorney for the state showed security camera footage of Reed in the parking lot in the moments leading up to the shooting.
However, Reed’s attorney claims that the video does not prove he did it beyond a reasonable doubt.
"At the end of this case, the video footage shows my client the victim of an armed robbery," said defense attorney Nicole Fegan. "You will never see my client with a gun in this video footage you will never see my client shooting his gun in this video footage."
The witnesses who took the stand on Monday included Phipps Plaza’s head of security, another staffer at the mall, and a police officer.