Left: Donovan Carter (Marietta Police Dept.); Right: Kenneth Cunningham; Inset: Scene of alleged shooting (WXIA screenshots)
A 33-year-old man in Georgia was arrested last week after he allegedly dressed up like a delivery driver to lure his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend out of his apartment on his birthday, and then gunned him down in what authorities called a “preplanned, premeditated” attack.
Donovan Carter was taken into custody on Wednesday following a multiagency manhunt and charged with one count each of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime in the slaying of 40-year-old Kenneth Cunningham, authorities announced.
According to a press release from the Marietta Police Department, officers at about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 3 responded to reports of a shooting outside of an apartment complex in the 2100 block of Cobb Parkway South. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders located a male victim on the ground just outside the apartment complex suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The victim, later identified as Cunningham, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators quickly discovered that Cunningham was a resident of the apartment building and had just exited the building when he was fatally shot.
Shortly after the shooting, officers from the Cobb County Police Department, the Smyrna Police Department, and deputies from the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office all responded to the scene to assist in the investigation.
Authorities spoke to witnesses who said they saw a “slender male approximately six foot tall” fleeing the scene immediately after the shots rang out. Hours after the attack, police said they were “confident” that Cunningham was specifically targeted and that the shooting was not a “random act of violence.”
Late that night, authorities apprehended Carter after pulling over his vehicle and booked him into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
Police later stated that Carter had planned out the assassination of his ex’s new boyfriend, even going so far as to allegedly dress up as a delivery driver to draw Cunningham out of the apartment.
“The suspect did overtly and intentionally drive over an hour to this location premeditated, and plan this event posed as a delivery driver,” Marietta Police Public Information Officer Chuck McPhilamy told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “(Carter then) lured the victim out of his residence and then proceeded to shoot him multiple times.”
McPhilamy told Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA that Cunningham was actually expecting a package that had not yet arrived on the day of the shooting.
“He was expecting a package. He was being lured out of his own apartment under the guise of there is a package waiting for you,” McPhilamy told the station. “And it was only then that the suspect confronted him and brutally shot him.”
Authorities further confirmed that Carter’s ex-girlfriend is not suspected of being involved in the fatal shooting.
Speaking about Carter’s eventual arrest, McPhilamy said the arrest was the product of multiple law enforcement agencies working together with a singular goal.
“Most of the time, we talk about a crime being solved because of one key piece,” he told the Journal-Constitution. “You had six different agencies all working together to hold this individual accountable. And if it weren’t for all of their efforts … if this were solved, it certainly would not have been solved in the short amount of hours.”
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