DEKALB COUNTY, GA — The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office announced a guilty ple a in the 2023 death of a child who was shot with his father’s unattended firearm.

On Thursday, September 18, 2025, Dante Lamar Daugherty, 44, pleaded guilty to Murder in the Second Degree, and two counts of Cruelty to Children in the Second Degree in connection with the death of his son, Z’ayre Daugherty, 7, on Sept. 4, 2023.

According to the investigation, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) responded around 6:10 p.m. to a call of a person shot at a gas station in the 1800 block of Rock Chapel Road in Lithonia. Officers found Daugherty in the back seat of an SUV holding his son, Z’ayre, who had a gunshot wound to the head. EMS responded and pronounced the boy deceased at

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