DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Surveillance video shows the moments a father, now charged with second-degree murder, left his 6-year-old and 7-year-old son in a car containing a loaded gun.
According to police and arrest warrants, at some point after that, the 7-year-old boy was shot in the head and killed.
The exact circumstances of what happened at the moment of the shooting remain unclear, and the surveillance video does not offer a view that would fully explain it. But the video does show the father, 42-year-old Dante Daugherty, leaving the boys with the car and then going into a DeKalb County Texaco station.
The incident happened at the gas station on Rock Chapel Road outside Lithonia on Monday evening.
Daugherty has also been charged with two counts of second-degree child cruelty. Warrants state the boys found the gun and that the 7-year-old was shot in the head. The warrants do not offer any further detail into the moments that led up to the gun going off.
"A 7-year-old male was confirmed deceased. As a result of the investigation, the child’s father... was arrested and lodged in the DeKalb County Jail," a police statement said.
In the video, Daugherty can be seen letting his sons into what appears to be the backseat of the car before going into the station.
After several minutes, you can see what looks like movement in the backseat of the car before the back passenger side door opens and one boy suddenly sprints out and runs from the gas station. It is never clear exactly when a gunshot would have gone off, or how.
The video does not show when Daugherty reemerges or when he would have found his 7-year-old son shot.
The father was in court on Wednesday for a first appearance, where a judge denied him bond. His next court date is not yet scheduled.