A man who allegedly shot a 2-year-old boy outside a Memorial Drive Kroger in June will remain in jail without bond, a DeKalb County judge ruled Friday.
Chazrel Jaquan Burton, 21, had asked DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Clarence F. Seeliger to lower his bond, which was set at $500,000. Rather than reduce bond, Seeliger chose to remove any chance Burton had of being released from jail.
“There were 15 shots fired in a public place and a child was injured,” Seeliger said. “I don’t know what he was aiming at … what he was shooting at, but he in fact is a danger to the community.”
On June 26, prosecutors said Burton tried to rob someone outside Kroger when Jermaine Harrison, the toddler’s father, intervened.
Harrison confronted Burton after witnessing the robbery minutes earlier across the parking lot, DeKalb County Assistant District Attorney Andy Pascual told the court.
“He told Mr. Burton, ‘I know what you did. I saw what you did,’” the prosecutor said of Harrison. “It was Mr. Harrison’s intent to essentially not let him get away with robbery.”
But Burton’s defense attorney said his client acted in self-defense.
“This so-called Good Samaritan beat the hell out of my client,” Averick Walker said. “What happened to my client would be called aggravated assault. He decided to defend himself.”
After a brief struggle between the two men, Harrison went to join his wife and child who had pulled up in their car.
The prosecutor pointed out that video from Kroger surveillance cameras showed Burton’s next actions.
“Mr. Harrison starts to get into his vehicle,” he said. “At that point, the defendant starts to walk away as well. And in an instant, he turns and whips around with his pistol and starts firing.”
Prosecutors said Burton walked in front of the car and fired 15 shots with Harrison, wife Nina and son Evan inside.
Evan was hit.
“He was … deliberately shooting his 9mm handgun, not just at Mr. Harrison, but at the entire vehicle,” Pascual said. “These windows are not tinted. If you were in front of the vehicle as the defendant was when he started shooting, you can clearly see Nina Harrison was in the driver’s seat and the 2-year-old in a child seat in the middle of the back seat.”
Burton fled, but a wide-scale manhunt and media blitz, including video footage of the incident prompted him to turn himself in to police on July 3.
He has been held in the DeKalb County jail since July.
Friday was not the first time that Burton asked a judge to reduce his bond. DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Daniel Coursey denied his first reduction request in early September.
Burton was indicted later that month on three counts of attempted murder, multiple counts of aggravated assault and gun possession during the commission of a crime as well as single counts of first-degree child cruelty, first-degree criminal damage and robbery.
Harrison and his wife were in court for Friday’s bond hearing. His son has gone through three surgeries to save his life from gunshot wounds to his liver and resulting respiratory failure, prosecutors said. Harrison said he was happy with the outcome.
“But,” he said, “it was rough going through what happened all over again.”
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