About a dozen people from Georgia and Tennessee have been charged in connection with the deaths of an 11-year-old girl and her 15-year-old brother shot to death as they slept in a Clayton County home in 2016.

The 54-count indictment includes several charges for murder, cruelty to children and violation of the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.

The deaths of Tatiyana and Daveon Coates may have been due to a missed target, police said. Gang members were looking for another 15-year-old who had stolen weapons from a DeKalb County residence. He had been temporarily staying with the Coates family, but had returned to Chattanooga, Tenn., at the time of the slayings.

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KSU said Monday a reported gas leak in the H building caused service outages impacting the Marietta campus. (AJC FIle)

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

Credit: Family photo