According to Deputy Chief Charles Hampton Jr.’s press conference on Wednesday, two teens have been detained in connection with a shooting last month in Atlanta that claimed the lives of a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old.
In addition to the kid killed, at least four other teens were hurt in the shooting that police initially reported took place on the 17th Street bridge after a fight near Atlantic Station, a central shopping area.
Two juveniles, ages 15 and 16, were arrested Wednesday and charged with murder, aggravated assault, and gang activity in connection with the deaths of Zyion Charles, 12, and Cameron Jackson, 15, according to Hampton.
As Hampton explained, the video of the argument and subsequent gunshot helped police identify the perpetrators.
They are both pupils in the Atlanta Public Schools system, but authorities have not released their names.
According to Hampton, the US Marshals Service helped bring the teen to justice in New York. Additional charges are to be expected, and the matter is still “quite active,” he said.
According to prior police reports, the shooting took place on the evening of November 26 after a “group of youths” were removed from Atlantic Station premises for “unruly behavior” and for breaking the curfew in the shopping district.
Gunfire broke out after the argument had shifted to 17th Street. When emergency personnel arrived, Zyion was pronounced dead.
Police revealed during a press briefing on November 30 that Cameron, who died from his wounds several days later, was the intended target of the shooting.
When Cameron was shot, authorities said there had been no exchange of gunfire. Det. Jarion Shephard of the Atlanta Police Department stated that “all the rounds were targeted, pointed towards Cameron.”
Everything else was just collateral damage. Zyion’s mom said she had phoned the police several times asking for help with her kid in a public presentation she made before a meeting of the Atlanta Public Safety Committee last month.
In an effort to communicate with you, I did my best. In the past two years, I have made about thirty calls to the police department.
They told me they couldn’t do anything,” Deerica Charles said. Charles told the committee, “before anyone killed my kid, I phoned everybody I could to get him off the streets and sit him down.”
When queried about Charles’ allegations from a month ago, Hampton refused to comment, citing that police attention was being diverted to the ongoing murder investigation.
Source: CNN