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Police arrest 2 teens in georgia baby's killing

j-mac

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BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) -- A pair of teenagers was arrested Friday and accused of fatally shooting a 13-month-old baby in the face and wounding his mother during their morning stroll through a leafy, historic neighborhood in southeast Georgia.
Sherry West had just been to the post office a few blocks from her apartment Thursday morning and was pushing her son, Antonio, in his stroller as they walked past gnarled oak trees and blooming azaleas in the coastal city of Brunswick.
West said a tall, skinny teenager, accompanied by a smaller boy, asked her for money.
"He asked me for money and I said I didn't have it," she told The Associated Press Friday from her apartment, which was scattered with her son's toys and movies.
"When you have a baby, you spend all your money on babies. They're expensive. And he kept asking and I just said `I don't have it.' And he said, `Do you want me to kill your baby?' And I said, `No, don't kill my baby!'"
Authorities said one of the teens fired four shots, grazing West's ear and striking her in the leg, before he walked around to the stroller and shot the baby in the face.
Seventeen-year-old De'Marquis Elkins is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, along with a 14-year-old who was not identified because he is a juvenile, Police Chief Tobe Green said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the boys had attorneys.
Police announced the arrest Friday afternoon after combing school records and canvassing neighborhoods searching for the pair. The chief said the motive of the "horrendous act" was still under investigation and the weapon had not been found.
"I feel glad that justice will be served," West said. "It's not something I'm going to live with very well. I'm just glad they caught him."
West said detectives showed her photographs of about 24 young men. She pointed to one, saying he looked like the gunman.
"After I picked him, they said they had him in custody," West said. "It looked just like him. So I think we got our man."
West said she thought the other suspect looked much younger: "That little boy did not look 14."

News from The Associated Press


Ok, I am not posting this to be another in the long overplayed line of gun rights bashing threads. So, other than the AP obviously grammar challenged writers, Anyone notice the absolute shoddy police work here? I'd be surprised if these two teens are even indicted....Thoughts?
 
Personally, I hope they get punished to the full extent of the law, if they are tried and found guilty. Little scumbags.
 
I've been to Brunswick a few times. It's a completely bigoted, backwards town. It wouldn't surprise me at all if racial slurs were used which provoked the attack. Let's allow the facts to come to light before we rally the lynch mobs here.
 
Personally, I hope they get punished to the full extent of the law, if they are tried and found guilty. Little scumbags.

Doing life as prison pass-arounds works for me for those two
 
I've been to Brunswick a few times. It's a completely bigoted, backwards town. It wouldn't surprise me at all if racial slurs were used which provoked the attack. Let's allow the facts to come to light before we rally the lynch mobs here.

yeah, I am sure the 13 month old kid did something that, in your mind, mitigates those two pissants shooting the kid to death
 
Yes, by all means, a racial slur is a good reason to kill someone's baby. For God's sake.:roll:
 
Yes, by all means, a racial slur is a good reason to kill someone's baby. For God's sake.:roll:

its a typical bit of reasoning in his posts. Too bad mom wasn't packing heat and could kill those two assholes. sounds like society would be better off without either of them consuming any more oxygen
 
I'm not condoning it, just saying there's probably more to the story.
 
It wouldn't surprise me at all if racial slurs were used which provoked the attack.

It surprises me that anyone would think racial slurs can provoke firing 4 shots at someone and then shooting a baby in the face.

That smells Poe.
 
If they are found guilty, they deserve the highest sentence allowable.

That said, this whole story doesn't ring true with me. The only thing that has been consistent is the fact that there is a dead baby, and someone shot the poor little thing. The mother seems... off. If I'd just seen someone slaughter my baby, I wouldn't be giving long, rambling interviews within hours. Everything she said seemed so practiced, so nonsensical (the way she made a big deal of running into a driveway with her baby, after the perps had left instead of screaming for help, for example). She seemed more nervous than griefstricken... then again, people deal with grief differently.

All I know is that when I saw her, my brain whispered "shades of Susan Smith." If the police can't find the murder weapon and tie it to their "suspects", you can color me skeptical about the entire quick-turnaround arrest based on... well, based on nothing that's been made public beyond they fit the descriptions.

Yeah, I'm cynical. I know. But I'll wait and see what happens on this, because I'm not getting the "aha, justice will now be done" vibe.
 
I'm not condoning it, just saying there's probably more to the story.

I don't care if she if she reached into the back of her pants and threw feces at them, how can you shoot a 13 month old baby in the face?

Just flush that gene pool down the toilet.
 
If they are found guilty, they deserve the highest sentence allowable.

That said, this whole story doesn't ring true with me. The only thing that has been consistent is the fact that there is a dead baby, and someone shot the poor little thing. The mother seems... off. If I'd just seen someone slaughter my baby, I wouldn't be giving long, rambling interviews within hours. Everything she said seemed so practiced, so nonsensical (the way she made a big deal of running into a driveway with her baby, after the perps had left instead of screaming for help, for example). She seemed more nervous than griefstricken... then again, people deal with grief differently.

All I know is that when I saw her, my brain whispered "shades of Susan Smith." If the police can't find the murder weapon and tie it to their "suspects", you can color me skeptical about the entire quick-turnaround arrest based on... well, based on nothing that's been made public beyond they fit the descriptions.

Yeah, I'm cynical. I know. But I'll wait and see what happens on this, because I'm not getting the "aha, justice will now be done" vibe.

Well as soon I post my comment I read your comment and that does sound odd. I would be a basket case if I just saw my 13 month old killed. Or was she in a state of shock?
 
ecofarm;1061601502That smells Poe.[/QUOTE said:
everything he writes does.
 
If they are found guilty, they deserve the highest sentence allowable.

That said, this whole story doesn't ring true with me. The only thing that has been consistent is the fact that there is a dead baby, and someone shot the poor little thing. The mother seems... off. If I'd just seen someone slaughter my baby, I wouldn't be giving long, rambling interviews within hours. Everything she said seemed so practiced, so nonsensical (the way she made a big deal of running into a driveway with her baby, after the perps had left instead of screaming for help, for example). She seemed more nervous than griefstricken... then again, people deal with grief differently.

All I know is that when I saw her, my brain whispered "shades of Susan Smith." If the police can't find the murder weapon and tie it to their "suspects", you can color me skeptical about the entire quick-turnaround arrest based on... well, based on nothing that's been made public beyond they fit the descriptions.

Yeah, I'm cynical. I know. But I'll wait and see what happens on this, because I'm not getting the "aha, justice will now be done" vibe.

Exactly, plus the part that struck me, is the whole "that looks like the guy" thing....A photo array, and she was skeptical about the younger one...No murder weapon, no eyewitness that can be conclusive....I just don't think at this early point that they have the right guys....That said, whom ever is responsible for this should rot in hell.
 
If they are found guilty, they deserve the highest sentence allowable.

That said, this whole story doesn't ring true with me. The only thing that has been consistent is the fact that there is a dead baby, and someone shot the poor little thing. The mother seems... off. If I'd just seen someone slaughter my baby, I wouldn't be giving long, rambling interviews within hours. Everything she said seemed so practiced, so nonsensical (the way she made a big deal of running into a driveway with her baby, after the perps had left instead of screaming for help, for example). She seemed more nervous than griefstricken... then again, people deal with grief differently.

All I know is that when I saw her, my brain whispered "shades of Susan Smith." If the police can't find the murder weapon and tie it to their "suspects", you can color me skeptical about the entire quick-turnaround arrest based on... well, based on nothing that's been made public beyond they fit the descriptions.

Yeah, I'm cynical. I know. But I'll wait and see what happens on this, because I'm not getting the "aha, justice will now be done" vibe.

Interesting. I haven't seen her interviewed. Did the cops check her out as a sucpect, to your knowledge?
 
Well as soon I post my comment I read your comment and that does sound odd. I would be a basket case if I just saw my 13 month old killed. Or was she in a state of shock?

I'm not a shrink, but it didn't appear so to me. You'd have to see a video of her interview and judge for yourself (I tried, but couldn't find the video of her press conference). Trust me, it was odd. :(
 
If they are found guilty, they deserve the highest sentence allowable.

That said, this whole story doesn't ring true with me. The only thing that has been consistent is the fact that there is a dead baby, and someone shot the poor little thing. The mother seems... off. If I'd just seen someone slaughter my baby, I wouldn't be giving long, rambling interviews within hours. Everything she said seemed so practiced, so nonsensical (the way she made a big deal of running into a driveway with her baby, after the perps had left instead of screaming for help, for example). She seemed more nervous than griefstricken... then again, people deal with grief differently.

All I know is that when I saw her, my brain whispered "shades of Susan Smith." If the police can't find the murder weapon and tie it to their "suspects", you can color me skeptical about the entire quick-turnaround arrest based on... well, based on nothing that's been made public beyond they fit the descriptions.

Yeah, I'm cynical. I know. But I'll wait and see what happens on this, because I'm not getting the "aha, justice will now be done" vibe.

A white woman kills her child and says an African-American is responsible? Nah, couldn't be.

I'm telling you guys, Brunswick is a plantation community.
 
Interesting. I haven't seen her interviewed. Did the cops check her out as a sucpect, to your knowledge?

Early on there were comments about "inconsistencies" in the mother's story. She was just so... into addressing the crush of reporters. She even pulled back her hair and shove her ear toward the nearest camera to show where one of the bullets grazed her (couldn't see so much as a scratch, although camera's aren't exactly HD in the field). She was also shot... in the leg... while the baby was shot square in the face.

Something in her words... I'm paraphrasing somewhat because I can't recall exactly... "They told me to give them money. I said I don't have any money. They reached for my purse. They said they'd kill my baby. I said no, don't kill my baby. Then they shot me and killed my baby." First, though, she went through this detailed description of how she decided to go for a walk because she realized she didn't get out enough, and it would be good for her to get out, and how she was so close to home when it happened (although nobody saw or heard a thing). Also, she said they ran off but didn't mention whether they'd taken her purse or not.

After that she went into great detail about grabbing her baby and looking for a safe place, went into a stranger's driveway (although she was just a few doors from her home) and tried to give cpr, describing how she could see the baby's chest moving, but he wasn't breathing on his own, and then the police came and they did cpr too, but "then we lost him."

You know, that's just a bunch of details that most traumatized parents wouldn't be sharing in an almost enthusiastic manner during a press briefing. I got a really nape-hairs-prickling vibe from her, that's all.
 
A white woman kills her child and says an African-American is responsible? Nah, couldn't be.

I'm telling you guys, Brunswick is a plantation community.

yeah and black youths NEVER murder whites
 
A white woman kills her child and says an African-American is responsible? Nah, couldn't be.

That's a lot more likely than racial slurs "provoking" someone to shoot a baby.

If her injuries are self inflicted, that will be obvious enough and reported soon.
 
I hope the perpetrators are found guilty and punished.


That said, does this type thing bother anyone else?
West said detectives showed her photographs of about 24 young men. She pointed to one, saying he looked like the gunman.
"After I picked him, they said they had him in custody," West said. "It looked just like him. So I think we got our man."

I always feel uncomfortable when eye whiteness accounts are the main evidence used in a case. People make mistakes and some even lie outright. I do not feel that locking someone away for a very long time because someone said you committed a crime with out other absolute proof is the right way to go. It leaves to much room for untruthfulness and mistakes.
 
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