FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced Monday that her office has made great strides on two high-profile cases.
In the first of those cases, authorities have arrested 26 gang members accused of targeting celebrities.
The 220 count indictment says more than two dozen people carried out a series of high-profile robberies at celebrity’s homes.
Singer Mariah Carey, “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Marlo Hampton, Falcon’s star Calvin Ridley, Atlanta United star Brad Guzan were four of the alleged victims.
“If you thought Fulton was a good county to bring your crime to, to bring your violence to, you were wrong,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a news conference Monday.
Willis said the indictment centers on 16 different incidents starting in 2018. In an exclusive interview with Channel 2′s Mark Winne, she said those incidents stem from burglaries to home invasions to kidnappings.
“I just thank God and we’re covered in the blood of Jesus and I’m here to share this story,” Hampton said.
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Willis also announced that the man convicted of killing 7-year-old Kennedy Maxie just days before Christmas 2020 has been sentenced to prison.
Maxie was shot on Dec. 21, 2020 as she sat in the back seat of her aunt’s car outside of Saks Fifth Avenue. She died the day after Christmas.
Prosecutors said Daquan Reed, who was a convicted felon, was angry after he was robbed in the parking lot and started shooting. Maxie was randomly shot.
While she cares about all of the victims, she was extra concerned about getting justice for Maxie.
“It’s a baby, seven-year-old child driving down the street with her mother and her auntie right during the Christmas season taken from us. How can you be human and not feel for that child and her family?” Willis said in her sit-down interview with Winne.
Reed was convicted of murder, three counts of felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal damage to property in the first degree and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Willis says that she hopes that these two unrelated cases shares the message that authorities are fighting back against violent crime in Fulton County.
“We have violent crime here. We have gang violence here, but we now also have law enforcement that is coming together to combat these things and make sure that people pay very high consequences if they choose to come in Fulton County and commit crime,” she said.
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