Denorris Clark

Denorris Clark, a loving and funny 37-year-old Black man, is remembered by his family and friends as someone who was always smiling, joking, and helping others. A graduate of Southside High School in Atlanta, he was a beloved son, brother, friend, and a devoted father to two sons. His loved ones recalled him as a caring and giving person, an "absolute sweetheart" with a charming and intelligent personality. His life was tragically cut short in a sudden act of violence that unfolded on a busy Atlanta street in the spring of 2019.

On the night of April 7, 2019, at around 10:30 p.m., Denorris Clark and another man, 43-year-old Steve Sanon, were in the parking lot of a Taco Bell on Ponce de Leon Avenue near Parkway Drive. Witnesses and police stated that the two men were engaged in what appeared to be a friendly conversation with several people inside a black SUV. Without warning, gunshots erupted from within the vehicle. The sudden violence shattered the evening calm in the bustling area, located near Ponce City Market. When Atlanta Police Department officers arrived, they found a horrific scene. Denorris Clark was pronounced dead in the parking lot. Sanon was critically wounded and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

The brazen double homicide prompted an immediate and intensive investigation. Detectives recovered a firearm at the scene, but it was unclear if it was one of the murder weapons. The gunfire had been so chaotic that stray bullets struck another car in the drive-thru, narrowly missing a Georgia State University student and their friend, who were determined to be uninvolved witnesses. In the days that followed, police appealed to the public for help, releasing surveillance images of three vehicles of interest seen near the crime scene: a dark-colored Dodge Durango, a gray Chevrolet Trailblazer, and a red or maroon Hyundai Tucson. A memorial service was held at the Fort Street Memorial United Methodist Church, where the community gathered to mourn and remember Denorris.

For a time, the investigation yielded no arrests, and the case remained without a publicly named suspect. A significant breakthrough eventually came when investigators linked the killings to a man named Mikel Gunn, a rapper also known as 'ProblemChild5' and an alleged member of the 'Homixide' street gang. The connection was made through ballistic evidence. Two rifles recovered from a vehicle associated with Gunn were matched to the shell casings found at the scene of the double homicide on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Gunn was subsequently implicated in several other violent crimes in the Atlanta area.

Mikel Gunn was arrested and faced a 14-count indictment that included charges of murder, felony murder, and gang activity related to the October 2019 killing of another man, Chad Billingslea. While ballistic evidence had connected him to the murders of Denorris Clark and Steve Sanon, the legal proceedings focused on the separate homicide case. In a development reported in May 2025, Gunn accepted a plea deal. The murder charges against him in the Billingslea case were dropped. In exchange, he pleaded guilty to participation in criminal street gang activity.

Mikel Gunn was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the gang activity charge. While the man identified by police as responsible for the deaths of Denorris Clark and Steve Sanon is incarcerated, he was not convicted of their murders. As of the latest reports, the specific charges related to this double homicide have not led to a conviction, leaving the case legally unresolved. The investigation remains with the Atlanta Police Department.