ATLANTA — A mother says she is still filled with grief two years after her son was gunned down while selling water in Midtown.
That mom, Tomeka Pless, is once again reliving the death of her son Jalanni after the news of a "water boy" allegedly breaking an Atlanta Police officer's eye socket last weekend.
The city's so-called "water boys" are known as such for selling bottled water to drivers stopped at red lights - usually in larger, higher-traffic areas.
In June 2020, 18-year-old Jalanni Pless was shot and killed while selling bottles of water along 8th Street in Midtown. Police said he was shot over a $10 bill.
The mom said at the time that friends of Jalanni told her that he was selling water to a customer when a teen with a different group tried to sell to the same person. His friends said the customer gave Jalanni the $10, which led to a fight. Friends said the other teen left but came back with a gun and started shooting.
As outrage has poured in this week for the officer, both from the Atlanta City Council and other prominent figures in the community - with calls for something to be done about the "water boys" - Pless wants to know why this outrage wasn't there when her son was murdered.
"Something should have been done two years ago when Jalanni was gunned down in Midtown - in busy Midtown at that," she told 11Alive. "Nobody has spoken out about it for the last two years. Now that this officer has been injured - oh now it's a big deal, with these water boys. It wasn't then when my son's life was taken."
Photos: Jalanni Pless
The mom said back in 2020 that Jalanni had a job, but was selling water, too, to earn enough to buy a car. He would have turned 19 three weeks from his death.
Atlanta Councilman Michael Julian Bond, one of the most outspoken members on the "water boys" issue, said he shared the mother's anger at the death of Jalanni two years ago.
"My concern was just as adamant then and I share her concern," he said. "It's just reached a tipping point where you just can't turn away from this anymore."
11Alive asked Councilman Bond if he would sit down with Pless to help bring her family some closure, and he said a meeting is "long overdue."