30-year-old wanted for teen's death on the run

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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The 30-year-old man believed to have fired the gunshots that killed a teenager has not been found, Clayton County police said Saturday night.

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A 17-year-old rising senior died Thursday night after being shot several times while walking to a neighborhood swimming pool with his aunt.

Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com A 17-year-old rising senior died Thursday night after being shot several times while walking to a neighborhood swimming pool with his aunt.

Clayton County police Tyrone Terek Patterson.

Special Darnell Fields, 17, was shot to death while walking with his aunt on wooded path in his Clayton County neighborhood, his mother told the AJC.

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Tyrone Terek Patterson was one of several men seen standing outside of a Faith Cove home when a verbal altercation led to several shots being fired, Officer Otis Willis with Clayton police said.

Police took out a warrant for Patterson's arrest Friday night. Patterson should be considered armed and dangerous, Willis said.

Darnell Alonzo Fields, 17, his 32-year-old aunt, Cande Hope, and a 22-year-old friend were taking a wooded cut-through to a neighborhood swimming pool when Patterson allegedly fired several rounds, Willis said. The suspect then fled on foot toward Poplar Pointe Apartments, police said.

Fields died at the scene after being shot in the chest, and Hope suffered a gunshot wound to her left leg, police said.

Fields' mother, Shaquina Mitchell, didn't hear the gunshots in her Clayton County neighborhood Thursday. But, she told the AJC she had a bad feeling when she heard knocks on the front door shortly after 6 p.m.

"Kids came to the door, yelling that my family had been shot," Mitchell told the AJC. Mitchell and her son moved to Clayton County from Chicago in March to be closer to family, she said.

Mitchell said when she ran outside, she found her sister bleeding from the leg in the doorway of a neighbor's home. Her wounded sister pointed to the wooded path where moments before gunshots were fired.

Mitchell said she immediately took off running, toward a cut-through in the woods -- a shortcut her son took frequently.

"Where's my baby? Where's my baby?" Mitchell said she screamed, as police officers arrived.

Mitchell said police wouldn't allow her to get close to her son, who she said was motionless on the ground.

"I seen him laying there, and I kept asking, ‘Is he breathing? Is he breathing?'" Mitchell said.

About two hours later, Mitchell said she was told her son had died. Her sister underwent surgery Thursday night at Grady Memorial Hospital to treat a gunshot wound to her left calf, she said.

Mitchell said her son was an honor roll student and ran track, even recently earning a second-place medal. He would have been a senior at North Clayton High School.

“He don’t have enemies," Mitchell said.

When he is located, Patterson will be charged with murder and three counts of aggravated assault, police said. Patterson is considered armed and dangerous, and police are warning citizens to not approach the man

Patterson is described as 5-feet-9 inches tall and weighs 215 pounds, police said. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call police.