LILBURN, Ga. — Lilburn police are investigating the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man.
Police said they were called out to a man's home on Hillcrest Drive on Saturday night.
A group of friends said they were going to pick up a girl who lived in the area to go ice skating around 10 p.m. when their GPS system sent them to the wrong home.
The friends said they pulled into the driveway and saw a man peer out the window. They said they waited in the car for a bit and then the man, Phillip Sailors, 69, came out of the home with a handgun, firing a round into the air.
"The guy came out. He went in again and he came out with a gun in his hand and he shot into the air," 15-year-old passenger Yeson Jimenez said.
The friends said that's when they tried leaving the house, and said Sailors pointed the gun at the car and shot Rodrigo Diaz, 22, who was driving the car. An arrest warrant said Sailors had a .22-caliber pistol.
The passengers said Sailors never asked what they were doing there.
"'Shut up.' That's the only thing that came out of his mouth," passenger Gandy Cardenas said.
The friends said Sailors held the rest of the people in the car at gunpoint until police arrived at the home. All three passengers in the car are Parkview High School students.
Sailors is being held on no bond on charges of malice murder. He has no known criminal history.
The warrant said the Diaz was struck on the left side of the head.
Friends told Channel 2's Tony Thomas that Diaz had just arrived here from Colombia three months ago.
Thomas has also learned Sailors is a war veteran and a former church missionary. Sailors' attorney told Thomas that the man believed he and his wife were being attacked.
"He is very distraught over the loss of life from the defense of his home. This incident happened late in the evening hours when he was home with his wife and he assumed it was a home invasion and he maintains his innocence," the attorney said.
WSBTV
