$6 Million Settlement After Child Killed by Stray Bullet at Griffin Apartment Complex With Fabricated Security

In the early morning hours of March 14, 2023, gunfire erupted at an apartment complex in Griffin, Georgia. A stray round traveled through a bedroom wall and struck Asijah Love Jones, 11, as she slept. She died from the wound. A man was later arrested and charged in the shooting under Georgia's street gang statute.

According to the family's legal team, ownership had represented that the property was a gated community with working security cameras and on-site security guards. Those claims were not accurate. The gates did not function, the cameras were non-operational, and the guards who were present had limited authority and no meaningful mandate to protect residents.

The civil case turned on how extensive and well-documented the complex's crime problem was before Asijah was killed. Discovery showed management had received internal communications acknowledging a resurgence of gang activity on the property. Incident records revealed multiple prior shootings and other violent crimes. The owners, the plaintiffs argued, had full knowledge of what their tenants faced and continued misrepresenting conditions to prospective and current residents.

The insurer raised an assault-and-battery exclusion in the property's policy. That provision would have capped coverage at a $500,000 sub-limit, reducing the family's recovery by more than ninety percent. Attorneys Jeb Butler of Butler Kahn and co-counsel Ronnie Mabra of The Mabra Firm routed around the exclusion by pressing claims under Georgia's Fair Business Practices Act. Their argument centered on the complex's affirmative misrepresentations about security, framing the legal theory around deceptive conduct rather than the shooting itself.

The insurer agreed to pay the full $6 million policy limit. The settlement was reported by the Daily Report on January 14, 2025. No reduction or remittance on appeal has been reported.