ATLANTA — A reign of teenage terror allegedly driven by one gang led to two murders, two children wounded, and a 20-year-old woman shot in the head who survived.
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Now three of them face long prison sentences.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne spoke to the mother of a murder victim.
Fulton County DA’s office prosecutors say a young and hyper-violent gang has a name inspired by an intersection in the neighborhood.
But for at least two of them, barring appeal or escape, their freedom is at a dead-end with sentences that run into centuries.
“Who thinks it’s OK to shoot into an apartment with 10 people, where there are six kids present?” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said. “What is going on with society when we have 16, 17, and 18-year-olds treating human life like it’s a video game?”
“As part of the gang, being a shooter, committing various crimes, it is a way to get bragging rights,” Chief Senior Assistant DA Victoria Hicks
“I’m thankful to God every day that I’m not in limbo waiting,” said Deanne Ewing. “I got my justice in a year and a half.”
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A registered nurse, she helps people heal. But recent verdicts against Jeremiah Few and Israel Bird for her son Alex Smart’s killing in the culmination of a crime spree by a northwest Atlanta neighborhood gang will help her heal.
“Will I never stop grieving my son? No, I’ll never stop grieving my son,” she said.
“Jeremiah Few was a convicted felon at the age of 17,” Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Amanda Green said. “He was on active probation for robbery, released just four months before all this happened.”
Green says she and Hicks are prosecuting the gang.
Green says Few was also convicted in connection with shooting up an apartment where a 5-year-old and 9-year-old were wounded. Gang members attempted to shoot up a downstairs apartment but hit the upstairs unit where the kids were sleeping.
“They like to use high-powered weapons with switches on the back, which essentially turns a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon,” Hicks said.
Few was also convicted in connection with a shooting that wounded an innocent 20-year-old woman in a house containing 10 people.
For all this and more, Judge Kelly Lee Ellerbe sentenced Few to life without parole plus 360 years.
Green says Byrd got two life without parole sentences plus 240 years for crimes including the murders of Alex Smart and Daren Lamont VanArsdale II.
His lawyer says Byrd maintains his innocence and has filed a motion for a new trial.
Prosecutor Green says De’adrian Blackwell got 30 years in prison plus 45 years probation for gang charges and more in connection with the shooting of the 20-year-old woman.
Green said some gang members joked on Instagram group chat about drenching kids, meaning shooting them.
Ewing says her late son was intent on turning his life around for the sake of his 3-year old daughter.
“He was enrolled in school,” she said.
But he hadn’t yet stopped selling marijuana, believing it wasn’t a big deal. That was a mistake, she says, since it helped put him in the gunsights of gang members.
“You have to make that decision on which way, which path you’re gonna take,” Ewing said.
Attorney David West says he’s been retained to represent Few on appeal. He believes he has substantial grounds for the appeal, and he’s optimistic about Few’s chance for a new trial.
A motion for new trial’s also been filed for Blackwell.
Prosecutors hicks and green say five more alleged gang members still face charges in the case, and two others have taken plea deals.
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