An HBCU student has been released from jail after the road rage charges against him were dropped by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. Clark Atlanta University student Ladavious McNair had been held in custody at the Fulton County Jail with multiple charges, including aggravated assault and battery.
McNair was arrested on October 2 in connection to the road rage shooting that took place in November 2023. The event occurred following some kind of collision, close to the intersection of Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard and Metropolitan Parkway, according to an affidavit.
The victim claimed that after pistol-whipping him, a man who police later identified as McNair shot him in the knee and fled. But according to McNair, his lawyer, who has maintained his innocence from the beginning, says that it was impossible for McNair to be at the crime scene because he was in class at the time. McNair is an HBCU student at Clark Atlanta University working on his PhD.
“I've experienced a lot of trauma in this. Experienced things no one should have to experience. No one should have to deal with these things. As a veteran, I served my country and community, and I felt in this moment that my community turned their back and my country turned their back,” McNair said.
McNair was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of aggravated battery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion last week to drop all charges. The motion said, “The state no longer believes that it can prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt due to the change in the victim’s certainty of his identification of the defendant as the shooter.”
Atlanta police said that a camera system flagged McNair’s car around the time of the incident. People close to McNair said that’s because he was heading to class. McNair is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., founded on the campus of HBCU Howard University. and both his fraternity brothers and classmates came to his defense surrounding the case. “The profile doesn't match the crime, but they didn't even want to hear it,” McNair's fraternity brother, Kenneth Love, told FOX 5 in October.
According to attorney Marsha Mignott, the victim came forward and said that McNair wasn’t the suspect, but detectives continued to pin him as the suspect. McNair is not filing any lawsuits at this time, but he says an apology is not enough.
“Only one way to make this right, and a handshake might not do. An apology or an ‘I’m sorry’ might not do,” he said.
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