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Father says his son was victim of fatal Friday night shooting

An Atlanta man said his son was shot and killed early Friday evening outside a Sylvan Road gas station.

 
DaRonald Wilkerson. Photo used with permission of Donald Harris.

ATLANTA – An Atlanta man said his son was shot and killed early Friday evening outside a Sylvan Road gas station.

Police have not released the victim’s name, but Donald Harris, father of 17-year-old DaRonald Wilkerson, told 11Alive that his son was the victim.

Harris told 11Alive’s Faith Abubey, DaRonald was an 11th grader at Mays High School.

He was in a car with his older brother, 19, and two other people on Friday when “some sort of disagreement” erupted, according to Harris. That’s when someone else in the car shot and killed the victim.

Police responded to reports of a shooting around 7 pm at a Sylvan Road Texaco gas station and found one victim, who had been shot multiple times and was dead on the scene.

The gas station owner told 11Alive he witnessed the shooting. He said a car with four people pulled up to one of the station’s two working pumps and parked. He says he told them he only had two working pumps and they had to move their vehicle but the occupants of the car said they were there to buy gas.

Within minutes, the gas station owner said, one of the people in the car began shooting. According to the owner, two people in the car ran away, but one person was shot. The assailant began chasing the other two, but then returned to the scene and shot the victim again, the gas station owner added.

Witnesses told police the suspect eventually fled the scene toward Highway 166.

A local business owner said the area had been plagued by violence and drugs but that stopped about a year ago when a nearby apartment complex was emptied. He said he was surprised by the incident.

Police said they have a rough description of a person wanted in connection with the shooting.

Police believe the shooter is a brown-skinned man between his late teens and early 20s, last seen wearing a black shirt, light blue jeans and red sneakers.

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