DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County police have arrested three people after a 3-year-old was shot on Sunday night.
Investigators held a news conference on Monday afternoon, where they confirmed the arrests of two adults and a juvenile. Officials said a quick arrest was made because of technology available to officers.
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Jonathan Tate, 20, Julius Hughes, 21, and a juvenile are being charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
Police confirmed that the child, whose identity has not been released, remains in critical condition after the shooting, Channel 2’s Darryn Moore reported on Channel 2 Action News This Morning.
The shooting happened in the 300 block of N. Stone Mountain Lithonia Road in DeKalb County, near a McDonald’s.
Investigators say the toddler was strapped in his car seat in his father’s vehicle and stopped in traffic when the suspects began arguing outside a gas station. That’s when police say the groups started shooting and the family’s car was hit with bullets.
The child’s father, who was driving the car, was not injured.
“This incident was reckless, senseless, and completely unacceptable,” Police Chief Greg Padrick said during the news conference.
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The suspects’ car was spotted on Memorial Drive near North Hairston Road. A short time later, all three were arrested.
“A swift arrest was due primarily to two things,” DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said.
The county CEO credited a 2020 ordinance requiring all gas stations to maintain cameras at every pump due to the high risk of violence there. She also credits the new real-time crime center where officers are monitoring street cameras and traffic data.
“If you perpetrate a crime in DeKalb County or violence, we will hunt you down,” Cochran-Johnson said.
Officers later executed a search warrant at a home on Rock Meadow Drive, where police found a gun and “additional evidence.”
“No parent should ever have to experience this, and no child should ever be harmed by the careless actions of others,” Padrick said.
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