Atlanta youth, 13, robbed at gunpoint on way to school

By Mike Morris and David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta police searched a southeast side neighborhood Friday for a suspect they said robbed a 13-year-old boy of his cell phone at gunpoint while the child was walking to a bus stop.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Officer Kim Y. Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that officers were dispatched about 8:40 a.m. to a report of a robbery in the 1000 block of Conley Road, near the Clayton County line.

The boy’s mother, Nekila White, told Channel 2 Action News that her son “was playing music, and the guy walked up on him and put a gun to his side.”

Jones said the suspect pulled a silver-and-black handgun on the child and told him, “Go on, and hand it over.” The male allegedly added that if the phone had a lock on it, “I’m going to bust your head.”

The 13-year-old, who attends Forest Park Middle School in Clayton County, told investigators that he had walked by a group of teens at Conley and Bonnie Lane when a male he did not recognize came up to him.

The stranger was a black male with a tattoo on his face, Jones said. He was dressed in a black trench coat, black pants, brown Timberland boots and a black knit skull cap.

The male asked if he could use the boy’s cell phone, and the boy told him he was listening to music. The suspect asked the victim if he knew anyone who wanted to buy an iPad, and the youth said no.

The suspect then pulled out a handgun from a slit in his trench coat and demanded the phone, unlocked. The victim unlocked the phone and handed it over, and the suspect took off running toward Clayton County, Jones said.

The boy ran home and told his mother what happened. Jones said the victim was not injured in the incident.