Suspect, Victim in Fatal Woodruff Park Stabbing Identified

A 26-year-old man has been accused of murder in the Sunday stabbing death of a 17-year-old in Woodruff Park, Atlanta police say.

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Trenton Anderson has been charged in the murder of Cody Wayne Phillips, a Coweta County native who had been reported as a missing person and as a runaway within the last four months.

Anderson has been in an out of the Fulton County jail, serving five stints behind bars since 2010. According to the AJC, Anderson’s previous arrests came on charges ranging the gamut from trespassing to aggravated battery. He was last released from the jail in July.

Police believe that Anderson and Phillips got into a verbal argument which turned into a physical confrontation at approximately 10 p.m. on Sept. 21. It is alleged that Anderson then stabbed Phillips, who later died at Grady Memorial Hospital. Phillips’ funeral will be held on Thursday afternoon.

The stabbing is the second such incident in the last two months at Woodruff Park; on Aug. 27, a man was shot by Atlanta police near the park after he allegedly stabbed a Georgia State University Police officer.

Photo Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office