ATLANTA — Atlanta Police Department said it is leaving no stone untouched in their search for the people responsible for the shooting death of two juveniles. On Friday, officers spent hours canvassing the Oakland City neighborhood where the shooting happened.
Police said the shooting occurred as the children were on the stoop of their apartment complex at the intersection of Sparks and Peeples Street in the Oakland City neighborhood back on July 2. The triple shooting claimed the lives of Lamon Freeman and Jakody Davis, both just 13 years old. Jakody’s little brother DJ was also injured.
Neighbors told 11Alive Lamon was celebrating a birthday and that the boys had just finished singing the happy birthday song when the shots rang out.
“We have two families who are impacted by gun violence. We have justice that has to be administered; we have to bring people to court to hold them accountable,” said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.
The effort included an entire arsenal, from motorcycle officers to law enforcement on horseback. APD even had their helicopter up, patrolling for the air. The group of officers passed out flyers in hopes of catching the suspects in the shooting.
“What we know at this point in the case is that we had potentially six suspects who parked two vehicles on the other side of these apartments. They walked on foot behind me and seemly unprovoked open fire on the three juveniles,” said Major. Peter Malecki.
To encourage tips and help bring the suspect to justice, the reward for information leading to an arrest has been increased to $50,000.
“These juveniles didn’t appear to be doing anything; in fact, they were there to celebrate the birthday of one of the juveniles who was fatally shot, so it’s important to the police department,” Malecki added.
Chief Schierbaum was also out knocking on doors and speaking to residents.
“For the last two weeks, we’ve been a busy police department. You guys have protected the presidential debate; you all have protected the world's largest 10K, but this is more important than that,” said Chief Schierbaum to officers participating in the effort.
Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS.