Local

Mother pleads for end to violence after losing 3 sons

ATLANTA — An Atlanta mother whose three sons were murdered said the violence has got to stop.

Someone killed Kentavious Ballard Sunday. His two brothers were murdered in 2000 and 2001.

"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Janice Ballard-Dean

Ballard-Dean said that's been the case for three of her four children.

"I only had three sons and one daughter. All three of my sons was murdered," Ballard-Dean told Channel 2's Craig Lucie.

The most recent slaying happened early Sunday morning when police said Kentavious Ballard, 30, and a friend were walking through Atlanta's Central Park when two men approached them.

Police asked Channel 2 Action News not to identify his friend.

"He said, 'What y'all looking at?' and he turned and pow, pow, pow! And that's when we fell on the ground," said his unidentified friend.

Ballard had been shot in the heart.

"I can't bring him back. They killed a good friend of mine," said Ballard's friend in tears.

Lucie was there when an APD Ballistics dog searched for shell casings Monday evening.

Back in 2000, Kentavious Ballard's brother, Octavious, was gunned down in Clayton County.

"There was no money taken, nothing; (he was) just shot in the back and left. Left to die on the sidewalk, you know, all alone," said Lt. Richard Gandee of the Clayton County Police Department in a 2006 interview.

It's still a cold case. One year later on Dec. 24, 2001, Janice Ballard-Dean said someone robbed and shot her other son, Xavier, in DeKalb County.

She talked to Channel 2 Action News about her losses in a 2006 interview.

"On their birthdays, I don't get a chance to see Octavious or Xavier and the holidays, that's when I really get depressed and sick about it," Ballard-Dean told Channel 2's Monica Pearson at the time.

Now, Ballard-Dean is pleading for her last son's killer to come forward and the senseless killing to end right now.

"They need to try to come together as a community to stop the violence," Ballard-Dean said of her neighborhood and community.

Donations for Kentavious Ballard's funeral can be made at Fifth Third Bank under the "Kentavious Ballard" fund.