DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County Police have arrested two suspects behind a carjacking and deadly shooting over the weekend.
Police said it happened in the 4000 block of Redan Road near Indian Creek Road on Sunday morning. Sandy Lewis said her son, Cequan James, was getting gas at the Chevron station at the intersection after delivering for DoorDash throughout the night.
He never made it home.
“I just don’t understand why did you have to kill him,” Lewis questioned.
James was a groundskeeper for the housing department at Georgia Tech. Lewis said he worked for the delivery service to make some extra money on the weekends. She said she last saw her son when he walked out the door on Saturday night around 8:30 p.m.
“I never thought that my son would walk out that door and that would be the last time I see him,” Lewis said.
She explained it was just before midnight on Saturday she called her son.
“I was like, 'is everything working out there,' he was like 'yeah,'” she explained.
Lewis said that was the last time she heard is voice. She said around 6 a.m., she woke up and noticed her son wasn’t home.
“So, I picked up the phone and call him and all of a sudden DeKalb County Police is picking up his phone,” Lewis said.
After a brief conversation, it would be a little bit later in the morning a Dekalb County Police detective met with her to let her know that James was killed during a carjacking. She said the detective said the suspects took his car. Lewis said it wasn’t even his car, but rather a rental from Turo. She said he was driving a 2013 Acura TL.
Lewis said she just can’t make sense of it.
“He lost his life because he was at a gas station at the wrong time getting gas,” she explained.
Her only son was taken away in a blink of an eye.
“They took my son away from me on Mother’s Day,” she said.
She said he planned to take her out that day, but that never happened. Now, she hopes detectives can track down her son’s killers.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without my son,” Lewis said.
In an update Thursday, authorities said they arrested two people in connection to James' death: 20-year-old Shamal Smith and 21-year-old Taylor Smith. Detectives said the two are brothers.
Officer said they were tracking the stolen Acura and found it at a gas station off of Brockett Road. Investigators believe they "intentionally rammed" two of the officers' vehicles before attempting to take off. They were taken into custody and booked into the DeKalb County Jail, the police department added.
Anyone with information on this deadly carjacking is asked to call DeKalb County Police at (404) 294-2911 or Crime Stoppers Atlanta tip line at 404-577-8477.