Shakiya Pridgen was preparing to welcome a son when gunfire entered her bedroom, killing her and the unborn child.
DECATUR, Ga. — The decorations from Shakiya Pridgen’s baby shower had barely been put away when her family’s plans for a new child became arrangements to bury a 23-year-old mother and the son she expected to deliver within about two weeks.
Pridgen was killed June 16 after someone fired repeatedly through the window of her bedroom at an apartment on Peppertree Circle, authorities said. She was asleep with her children, ages 1 and 3, when the shooting began. The children were not physically hurt, but Pridgen suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died after being taken to a hospital. Her unborn son also died. Police arrested 26-year-old Devin Lamar Anthony later that day and accused him of malice murder, feticide and several other felonies. He is presumed innocent unless proved guilty.
The killing left Pridgen’s relatives confronting several losses at once. They lost a daughter whom they described as loving and responsible. Two toddlers lost their mother and primary provider. A family that had gathered days earlier to celebrate an approaching birth lost the child it expected to welcome. Pridgen’s mother, Verdina Scott, said relatives would care for the surviving children and keep their mother’s name alive. She also said the family intended to follow the criminal case and seek justice for both Pridgen and the unborn boy.
Family members said the baby was to be named Kyren, although one local report spelled the name Kiyren. The difference has not been resolved in an official public record reviewed for this article. What is clear is that the chosen name had become part of the police investigation. An arrest affidavit cited by Law&Crime says Anthony, identified in the document as the unborn child’s father, did not agree with the name. The affidavit also says the couple had recently separated amid allegations of infidelity. Authorities have not established in court that either dispute was the motive for the attack.
Scott described her daughter as a young woman trying to build a secure home for her children. Pridgen had recently moved into her first apartment by herself, she told WSB-TV. She wanted to marry and settle down, and her mother said she had been attending church and doing what she could to raise her family. Those plans now survive mostly through the accounts of relatives. Pridgen did not become known to the public because of a profession or public office. She became the subject of news coverage because violence entered the room where she and her children slept.
Police were called to the apartment shortly after 5 a.m. Officers found Pridgen wounded inside and emergency crews took her to a hospital. Reports based on arrest warrants say 11 rounds were fired into the bedroom from outside. Pridgen was struck three times, including once in the abdomen and twice in the shoulder, according to 11Alive. Officials have limited their public descriptions of her injuries, and no additional detail is needed to understand the force of the attack. Her two children were close enough to be in danger but were not struck.
Investigators allege that the shooter knew which window led to Pridgen’s bedroom and knew she slept there with the children. That claim is significant because it may bear on planning and intent, but it remains part of the prosecution’s account. Police have not publicly released all evidence supporting it. The complete statements of witnesses, any communications between Pridgen and Anthony, and forensic findings from the apartment have not been made available. No public report reviewed for this article identified an eyewitness who said they saw Anthony fire the shots.
Instead, the affidavit points to traffic-camera evidence that investigators say placed Anthony’s vehicle at the scene. Authorities have not released the full video or explained how many cameras recorded the vehicle. They also have not said publicly whether the images show a driver, a license plate or only a vehicle matching a description. Such details may emerge through court filings or hearings as prosecutors disclose evidence to the defense. At this stage, the camera material is described by police as an investigative link, not a verdict.
The search for Anthony ended in Riverdale, where DeKalb County sheriff’s deputies and members of the U.S. Marshals Service located him at a home on Quail Hunt Drive. He was arrested without any reported injury and taken to the DeKalb County Jail. The sheriff’s office described the killing as senseless violence that had devastated a family and the wider community. Anthony was held without bond in the latest publicly available accounts. It was not clear whether he had retained an attorney or entered a plea.
The charges may change as the case advances. Early court information cited by People listed malice murder, feticide, two aggravated-assault counts, criminal damage to property and firearm possession by a convicted felon. Fox 5 Atlanta later reported five aggravated-assault counts. The difference may reflect additional warrants or updated entries, but the reviewed reports did not include a final indictment. A grand jury would ordinarily determine which felony counts proceed, though no indictment date was publicly confirmed.
The aggravated-assault allegations may include people placed in danger by the gunfire even if they were not physically wounded. Officials have not publicly explained the factual basis for each count or identified every alleged victim associated with them. The criminal-damage charge appears to concern damage to the apartment caused by the shots. The firearm-possession charge relates to Anthony’s criminal history, which has also drawn attention from Pridgen’s family and local reporters.
WSB-TV reported that Anthony was indicted for murder in Fulton County in 2021 after another man was shot and killed. The station said Anthony later accepted a negotiated plea to voluntary manslaughter under Georgia’s First Offender Act. He received a 20-year sentence, with 11 months in custody and the balance on probation. The station also reported that his probation was revoked in February after he failed a drug test. The full terms of the revocation and the legal status of the first-offender disposition were not included in the available reports.
Pridgen’s parents questioned why Anthony had been free. Scott said he had received a second chance while her daughter would never receive one. Pridgen’s father similarly criticized the earlier outcome. Their anger focuses on a criminal-justice decision that preceded the deaths of their daughter and unborn grandson, but the legal record is more complex than a single sentence. First-offender treatment can allow a qualifying defendant to avoid a formal conviction after successfully completing a sentence. A violation can change that status, depending on the court’s order and later proceedings.
The prior case does not prove the new allegations. Prosecutors in DeKalb County will still have to establish who fired into Pridgen’s bedroom and prove every element of each current charge. Anthony’s defense will have the right to review evidence, challenge searches and identifications, question witnesses and contest the state’s theory. Evidence of earlier conduct may also be restricted at trial unless a judge finds it admissible under Georgia’s rules of evidence. Public anger over a prior sentence cannot substitute for proof in the pending case.
For Pridgen’s relatives, however, the legal distinctions exist alongside immediate practical needs. Two very young children must now grow up without their mother. The family has said it will provide care, but it has not publicly detailed permanent custody arrangements. A fundraising page was created to help with funeral expenses and support for the children. The campaign’s statements, like other family accounts, are not official investigative findings, but they offer a picture of the responsibilities that remained after the shooting.
Scott said her daughter had been the children’s only provider and that they were too young to understand the loss. That concern shifts part of the story beyond the courtroom. The children survived the gunfire, but the consequences of the attack did not end when police left the apartment or when Anthony was booked into jail. Their home became a crime scene, their mother’s plans ended, and the relatives who had expected to help with a newborn instead began deciding how to raise the children already here.
The name Kyren now carries a different meaning for the family. It was selected for a child expected within days and later appeared in public statements demanding accountability. Investigators included disagreement about the name in their description of the couple’s recent conflict, but no verified evidence shows that one dispute fully explains the killing. Prosecutors may develop a broader motive through messages, witness testimony or other records. Until then, the naming issue remains one allegation among several, not a complete explanation for the deaths.
Authorities had not released a full evidence inventory, announced a final indictment or confirmed a trial schedule in the latest reviewed material. Anthony remained in custody without bond as the investigation continued. Pridgen’s relatives said they would attend to her surviving children, preserve memories of their mother and follow the prosecution. The family that had prepared to welcome Kyren is now carrying forward the names of both mother and son.
Author note: Last updated July 20, 2026.