Metro Atlanta
Metro Atlanta

After Instagram meeting, man forces girl, 17, into sex work, cops say

Shaquille Donte Smalls
Shaquille Donte Smalls
By Joshua Sharpe
Dec 11, 2017

A Gwinnett County man accused of forcing a 17-year-old girl into sex work in DeKalb County had met her on Instagram, police said Monday.

Shaquille Donte Smalls, 23, is charged with sexual exploitation of a child and pimping. Warrants allege he had the girl perform sex for money, which she sent to him through Western Union.

The girl, who had been reported missing in Clayton County, was found in Americas Best Value Inn on Memorial Drive near Georgia State University-Perimeter College. The hotel isn’t far from the DeKalb jail.

The crimes are alleged to have occurred between Oct. 19 and 22.

Smalls was arrested last Saturday and released on bond a few days later, though jail records don’t say how much bond.

Further information wasn’t released.

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DeKalb County police said one suspect is dead and another is in custody after one of the suspects got into a shootout with police.

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