$3 Million Settlement After Teen Killed at DeKalb Apartment Complex With Complicit Security Guards

On January 6, 2016, a 15-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man were shot near the entrance of Creekside Forest Apartment Homes in South DeKalb County during what police described as a robbery. The teenager died. A man named Bruce Datrez Howard was later convicted of murder and armed robbery and is serving a life sentence in state prison.

The family of the slain teenager filed a civil lawsuit in DeKalb County State Court against Cheskel Meisels, the New York-based former owner who controlled the complex through a company called Creekside by TAG. The suit argued that the attack was not an isolated crime but a foreseeable consequence of conditions the ownership had allowed to persist for years.

The negligent-security case centered on two core failures. First, the complex gate was broken and provided no meaningful barrier against outside threats. Second, attorneys alleged that on-site security personnel were not protecting residents at all. Witnesses described guards taking a share of money from drug transactions happening on the property. Residents, one attorney told reporters, were 'sitting ducks' because management had effectively directed security to protect the owner's asset, not the people living there.

The Mabra Firm joined co-counsel from the Butler Tobin firm and The Stoddard Firm in pressing the case toward trial. After roughly two years of litigation, Meisels's insurers agreed in October 2018 to pay $3 million, which represented the full available insurance limits on the property. No portion of the settlement was reported to have been reduced or remitted on appeal.

After the settlement was announced, conditions at the complex had continued to deteriorate, with local coverage documenting gang activity, squatters, and an abandoned leasing office. The outcome closed the civil chapter for the victim's family at the maximum recovery the owner's coverage allowed.