DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A community is in shock after two people were killed in an early morning shooting.
The shooting happened at a home on Rockcliff Road just before 4 a.m. Channel 2 Action News This Morning brought you to the scene as homicide detectives arrived at the home.
Where the bullets hit this house early this morning, little evidence markers have been placed on the white brick.
Family members have identified the 13-year-old victim as Demarcus Shirley. Police identified the second victim as 45-year-old Chauncey Newman.
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The friends of Demarcus told Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes that they were just hanging out and having a sleepover at the home.
“He had a lot of life in front of him,” Greg Carthon said about his 13-year-old great nephew, Demarcus, and gave us a photo of the child.
“He was a loved member of our family,” Carthon said.
Demarcus was killed while hanging out with a group of teenage boys at a DeKalb County home Wednesday night.
“It was 10 of us, including Pops and other adults,” Lorenzo Pinkins said.
The kids said it was a summer slumber party that ended in tragedy, and they don’t know why.
“We was just sleep and we had woken up to shots – then we had came, out here we seen him, tried to grab him. He was dead, Demarcus,” Lorenzo said.
“It was just really loud. All I heard was a loud thump – didn’t really hear,” Larry Bell-Ware said. “Gunshots for real, it was just one thump I woke up, went upstairs and seen him.”
The kids called the second victim, Newman, “Pops” because they said he was like a father to them all.
“Pops was a good person, though. He let us come over there when we had nowhere else to go. Anybody – any kids that are ever just walking around with nowhere to go they could come here. He was just a good person in general,” Larry said.
The survivors said the bullets flew right by them - and they could’ve been victims, too.
“It should’ve been me before Demarcus. Demarcus had too much life to live. He died too young,” Lorenzo said.
Police said they haven’t made any arrests - and they’re still investigating.
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