Local

Agencies team up to find dad accused of shooting baby

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Police are asking other law enforcement agencies to help search for a 19-year-old man accused of shooting his baby boy.

Channel 2 Action News arrived at the scene of the shooting on Stoneleigh Hill Road in Lithonia Sunday afternoon as police put up yellow crime-scene tape.

The woman living there told Channel 2’s Shae Rozzi she was cooking downstairs while her 5-month-old son and his father were upstairs and she heard the gunshot.

She believes it was an accident - but said she panicked when she saw that a bullet went through her baby's leg.

The baby's father, Keymon Jackson, ran out of the home. The mother thinks he panicked.

Jackson has a criminal history involving drugs, DeKalb County police said.

They now have warrants for his arrest on charges of reckless conduct, tampering with evidence and possessing a firearm as a felon.

"We had seen a lot of cars and police and everything here," Erson Lewis, a neighbor, said.

Lewis said he saw police bringing bags of evidence out of the home.

As a father himself, he couldn't stop thinking about the baby.

As a pastor in the community, he wants people to not only put their foot down, but their guns down, too.

“I pray this doesn't happen again. A stray bullet can kill anybody,” he said.

DeKalb County police said they won't know if the shooting was an accident or intentional until they talk to Jackson. Until they find him or he turns himself in, officers said, he should be considered armed and dangerous.