ATLANTA — The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said it has worked hard to come down hard on gangs.
But the murder of two men last year shows the work cannot stop now.
At a pool party in the City of South Fulton, July 4th, 2024, while most people celebrated Independence Day, for Anthony McCoy Jr., it was “GD Day.”
The GD stands for Gangster Disciples, which is the national street gang to which McCoy belonged and proudly proclaimed with tattoos on his body.
Numerically, 7/4 has a particular significance to the gang as well, Senior Assistant Fulton County District Attorney Amanda Green says.
“G being the seventh letter of the alphabet and D being the fourth letter of the alphabet, seven four is the day they pay homage to the gang,” Green told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne.
Green said McCoy murdered two people in separate incidents around the party that day -- Corey Leonard Jr., an entrepreneur who ran a mobile auto repair and had supposedly disrespected McCoy in front of women, and Joshua Houston III, a musician hired to perform at the party.
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Green said at the party, McCoy tried to throw Houston in the pool but could not, which was caught on video hours before McCoy killed Houston.
“He was attempting to throw him in the pool. Couldn’t. And you could just see everyone around him laughing at him, which also can be taken as disrespect,” Green said. “Earlier in the Party, he pulled a firearm out on Cory Leonard. Security took that firearm away. Later on, several hours later, when they were cleaning up, shutting down the party, he pulled a second firearm out of Mr. Leonard, and as Mr. Leonard was walking away, he shot him in the back of the head.”
Green said Houston did not know McCoy had killed his friend and father of three, Leonard, when Houston offered him a ride.
“Joshua Houston says, ‘We just gotta go pick up Corey.’ As soon as he said that, Mr. McCoy got out of the vehicle, shot two times in the vehicle. One of those shots hit Mr. Houston in the chest, killing him,” Green said.
Green said at a recent trial, McCoy was convicted of the murders, gang charges, and more.
“He’s proud of being a gangster. We have got to make this lifestyle unattractive to our children. He had a big impact on the community,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said. “So many people turned up at his funeral that so many of his friends gave their lives back to Chris.”
Miles Cowan, McCoy’s attorney, said he anticipates a motion for a new trial.
Green said the defense disputed that a security guard took a gun from McCoy and maintained nobody was at the party to celebrate the Fourth of July.
She said South Fulton gang investigator Kenya Manson and investigators from the DA’s major case unit deserve special credit.
“The fight against gangs is not over,” Willis said. “We have to continue to aggressively prosecute people that do violence in the name of their gangs.”
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