Police said a DoorDash driver was killed outside Palmetto Elementary School during a domestic dispute captured on surveillance video.

PALMETTO, Ga. — A Georgia man is facing murder and related charges after prosecutors said he shot a DoorDash driver outside an elementary school during a morning delivery, triggering a lockdown and a police chase that ended with his arrest.

The case centers on the Feb. 10 killing of 34-year-old Eboni Anderson outside Palmetto Elementary School in south Fulton County. Prosecutors say 39-year-old Christopher Ates shot Anderson while she was delivering food to a teacher, then fled with a young child in the vehicle before crashing hours later. The immediate stakes are both legal and public. Authorities are pursuing a murder case, while the shooting also rattled a school community that had to lock down and move hundreds of children after gunfire erupted outside the building.

Investigators said the shooting happened shortly after 11 a.m. as Anderson was working a DoorDash run at the school. Officers responding to reports of gunfire found her outside near the front of the campus. She died at the scene. School staff activated an emergency alert, and the school went into a hard lockdown. As police secured the area, more than 550 students were relocated to Bear Creek Middle School so parents could pick them up away from the active investigation. Authorities have said no students or staff members were physically harmed. The victim was later identified as Anderson, a 34-year-old mother of three. Reports from the court hearing said prosecutors believe the encounter was domestic in nature and involved Ates, who was identified in public accounts as her boyfriend and the father of her children.

The case grew more detailed as it moved into court. During a preliminary hearing in March, investigators presented surveillance footage that prosecutors said showed the fatal confrontation. According to reports from that hearing, Anderson had just picked up a Chick-fil-A order and was delivering it to a teacher at the school. Video reviewed in court was said to show a dispute near the school entrance. One account described Anderson throwing Ates’ bags from the vehicle before he shot her multiple times. Prosecutors then laid out what happened after the gunfire. Authorities said Ates fled the scene and led deputies on a chase that ended near the Houston and Twiggs county line when his vehicle crashed. Public reports said a young child was inside the vehicle during the chase, adding a second layer of concern to the case and helping explain why Ates also faced a cruelty-to-children allegation along with charges tied to the pursuit.

The killing drew attention far beyond the criminal case because of where it happened. A homicide outside a school entrance during the day turns a private dispute into a public emergency almost instantly. Palmetto Elementary had to shift from routine school operations to lockdown and evacuation, and families were left picking up children from another campus while police worked the scene. That response helped frame the case as more than a domestic shooting. It also became a test of how the school system and law enforcement handled a crisis just outside a building full of students. Public statements from school officials stressed that no one inside the school was in danger, but the timing and location gave the shooting a wider community impact. Anderson’s death also resonated personally. Family members described her as a devoted mother, and public fundraising efforts followed soon after the killing.

The legal process has moved quickly but is still in an early stage. A judge found probable cause for six charges, including malice murder and felony murder, and ordered the case sent to a Fulton County grand jury. A separate Fulton County judge later denied bond, leaving Ates in jail as the prosecution continues. Reports on the court proceedings said the state is expected to rely heavily on surveillance footage, the immediate crime-scene evidence, the chase evidence and testimony tying Ates to Anderson and the child who was in the vehicle after the shooting. The public record does not yet show a full defense account in response to the state’s allegations, and no trial date has been announced in the available reports. That means several important details remain to be tested in court, including the exact sequence of the argument and whether prosecutors will seek additional charges once the grand jury reviews the case.

The facts that are already public, though, give the prosecution a forceful outline. Anderson was working a delivery job in broad daylight. The shooting happened outside a school entrance. Children inside the building had to shelter, then relocate. Police said the suspect fled instead of staying at the scene and was arrested only after a pursuit ended in a crash. Each of those details is likely to shape how jurors eventually hear the case. For now, the death of a mother during a routine work stop has become a murder prosecution with video evidence, a locked-down campus and a defendant who remains jailed while the case heads to the next stage.

Ates remains held without bond as the case moves toward grand jury review in Fulton County. The next public step is whether prosecutors secure an indictment and set the case on a path toward arraignment and trial.

Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.