Father arrested, charged in fatal stabbing of 4-year-old in Atlanta
Atlanta father charged in daughter's stabbing
An Atlanta father faces murder charges after police say he fatally stabbed his four-year-old daughter during a domestic dispute Saturday night.
ATLANTA - Atlanta police have arrested a suspect in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 4-year-old girl during a domestic dispute at a southwest Atlanta apartment.
What we know:
Investigators said the department’s Homicide Unit established probable cause and obtained arrest warrants for 34-year-old Rashad Dixon.
Family members confirmed to FOX 5 that Dixon is the 4-year-old girl's father. The child was identified late Monday morning as 4-year-old Zuri Dixon.
4-year-old Zuri Dixon who passed away after a fatal stabbing at an Atlanta apartment on March 16, 2026. (Credit: provided by family members)
Dixon faces charges including murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, cruelty to children in the first degree, possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, false imprisonment, two counts of criminal damage to property and simple assault. Police said Dixon is currently in custody.
The child died after officers responded to a reported fight in progress late Saturday night at an apartment in the 1930 block of Alison Court SW.
Lt. Christopher Butler said officers arrived around 11:30 p.m. and spoke with a woman who reported a dispute happening inside the apartment. Because the door was locked, officers forced their way in through a window.
Once inside, police said officers saw a man holding the injured child and used de-escalation tactics to get the child away from him. Butler said the child appeared to have severe injuries.
Medics rushed the girl, who suffered multiple lacerations, to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – Hughes Spalding hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
Police said the man who had been holding the child was taken into custody at the scene before being transported to a hospital for treatment for apparent lacerations to his body.
What they're saying:
Neighbors in the area said the child’s death has shaken the community.
"That's hurtful because if that was my little sister, yeah, I will be hurt," neighbor Javohn Hamilton said.
Hamilton said he heard a commotion before police arrived at the apartment complex.
"We didn't think anything of it," he said. "We just thought two couples was going back and forth, and they was going to go in the house and end it all. Once we heard a shatter of the glass, we heard a kid screaming, and that's how we knew something serious was going down."
Another neighbor who did not want to be identified said she knew the child’s mother from a time when they stayed at the same shelter and said the mother had previously experienced domestic violence.
"I was very heartbroken," she said. "I feel like once you put your hands on a child, that's the lowest of the low, and especially for a child that has been asked to be in the world."
FOX 5's Annie Mapp spoke with the suspect's mother, who said she was shocked to learn of what her son was accused of doing, and she doesn't think she will be able to forgive him.
What we don't know:
Investigators are still working to determine the exact relationship between those involved and what led up to the stabbing. The child’s identity and official cause of death have not been publicly released.