Atlanta

Reward up to $10K for info on shooting outside football game that paralyzed boy

By Tyisha Fernandes, WSB-TV
By Tyisha Fernandes, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — Atlanta's mayor and police chief are both asking the public for help in finding whoever fired the shots that injured two children at a high school football game.

One of the children, a 12-year-old boy, was left paralyzed.

The children were moving toward one of the gates to leave Lakewood Stadium the night of Aug. 17 when there was an argument and people started shooting.

Bullets hit the innocent children.

“On the day my son got shot, it really did something to my family,” said mother Alison Woods.

Her son, Isaiah Payton, is now paralyzed from the chest down.

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“We’ve been suffering through emotional and financial stress because I had to leave my job to be at the hospital to learn how to care for my son,” Woods said.

Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields said her investigators have exhausted every lead during the last seven weeks.

“We hit a wall and, as the mayor alluded to, there were so many people out there. Multiple people saw this,” Shields said.

That’s why the Atlanta Police Foundation is now offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the shooters.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms got emotional during the Monday afternoon news conference and said witnesses shouldn’t be afraid to call Crime Stoppers.

“The streets talk, and the streets know far more faster, most times, than our Police Department. That’s the way my nephew’s murder was solved,” Bottoms said.

“It’s hard for a mother to sit and watch and actually watch your child go through that and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s the hardest thing,” Woods said.

Billboards are going up near Mays High School and near Carver High School, because those schools were playing in the game the night of the shooting.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.

Cox Media Group

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