A $5,000 reward has been raised to help find the killers of a 9-month-old DeKalb County boy.
And a coalition of DeKalb pastors expect to raise even more to find the men police believe are responsible for a revenge-fueled home invasion and shooting earlier this month.
“We’re going to find the killers of this baby,” Bishop Quincy Carswell of The Covenant Church told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “By tomorrow, I expect that we will have raised $10,000.”
On May 10, police say a group of masked individuals crashed through the front door of the To Lani Farm Road home where young Kendarious Edwards was with his mother, grandmother and a family friend.
The armed men chased the women to a bathroom in the home where they opened fire, critically injuring all three women and killing Kendarious.
“I covered my son (and) I said, ‘I love you, Doo-Doo,’” the infant’s mother, Tanyika Smith told Channel 2 Action News at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “They just started shooting. They shot him in the chest, the arm and in the stomach.
“My baby didn’t deserve that.”
Police have charged Smith's brothers Oslushla Smith, 19, and Cutrez Johnson, 16 — Kendarious' uncles — with murder, accusing them of killing Michael Phillips at a May 3 house party, and arrested the teens after a lengthy SWAT standoff.
The brothers have also been linked to the death of Alexis Malone, who was found dead days later and was believed to have been a witness of Phillips’ slaying.
Police said Malone had been beaten and shot.
Investigators believe the To Lani Farm Road attack was retaliation for Malone's May 10 shooting death.
A third suspect in the May 3 shooting, Kemontay Cullins, 18, was arrested on May 11.
Johnson and Oslushla Smith were arrested on the night of May 12 after fending off police SWAT teams for hours in a southwest Atlanta hotel.
Kayla Dixon, 20, has been charged with murder in connection with Malone’s death, and turned herself in to police on the same evening, police said.
They remain in the DeKalb County Jail without bond.
On Wednesday, Carswell said Kendarious hadn’t been buried and said the child’s family still needs help.
A wake will be held Friday at 6 p.m. at Raleigh Rucker Funeral Home near Decatur, Carswell said. A funeral is scheduled for Saturday at an as yet undetermined location, he said.
Carswell said ministers like himself and others who have formed the coalition to raise reward money did so because they have a responsibility to speak up about problems in their community.
“We needed to say something as spiritual and moral leaders of our community,” he said. “Pastors have come together and said enough is enough.”
Carswell said whatever funds raised will be turned over to Crime Stoppers Atlanta.
The reward is available for any information that could lead to an arrest or prosecution. Anonymous tips are welcome, and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers Atlanta at at 404-577-8477.
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