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GBI found Zadarious Dorsey’s DNA on pistol recovered 42 feet from shooting scene
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says an 18-year-old’s DNA was found on a pistol recovered after Newnan police fatally shot him. Dorsey’s family disputes the officer’s account and questions how the gun came to be found 42 feet from where he fell.
A pistol recovered 42 feet from where Zadarious Dorsey fell after being shot by a Newnan police officer carried the 18-year-old’s DNA, according to the Coweta County District Attorney’s Office, which cited testing by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Dorsey was killed by police earlier this month. The gun was a 9mm Canik pistol that had been reported stolen in Albany several years ago, the DA’s office said.
The GBI says the officer saw Dorsey pull a gun from his waistband before firing several shots. Dorsey’s family and their attorneys, who reviewed body-camera footage last week, say the video does not show him holding a gun.
Family attorney Harry Daniels questioned the distance between Dorsey and the gun, which investigators said was the only firearm recovered at the scene. “We don’t believe that physics would allow him to toss a gun that distance away if he was shot immediately and fell immediately,” Daniels said. “The math, just not mathing.”
The DA’s office also said body-camera footage from the chase and arrest captures the officer calling Dorsey by his nickname, “Dae Dae.” Earlier police reports show the officer was present during Dorsey’s arrests in May 2024 and October 2025, and when he was trespassed from Newnan High School in August 2023.
Dorsey was barred from possessing a firearm under bond conditions in cases in Coweta and Carroll counties. The DA’s release did not address whether the officer had reasonable suspicion to stop him. The details released so far leave competing accounts of the shooting and the gun’s location at the center of the case.