For nearly 24 years, Atlanta police have searched for two masked men who drove into the Martin Street Plaza housing project in southeast Atlanta and fired at random into a group of men who were gambling and boys who were playing nearby.
A bullet struck 11-year-old Jeremiah Anderson in the back, killing the child instantly, police said.
Jeremiah fell beside a pile of cash that the shooters were targeting, and police said the suspects stepped over the boy’s body to get to the money.
On Friday, police announced the arrests of two men long suspected in the Nov. 9, 1991 killing.
Raymond McDaniel, 46, of Atlanta, and Roderick Clark, 42, of Decatur, were in the Fulton County Jail, charged with murder.
Without providing details, Atlanta Detective Vince Velazquez told Channel 2 Action News that McDaniel and Clark had been suspected in the crime for years and authorities finally had enough evidence to take them into custody.
McDaniel was in a wheelchair when he was arrested, paralyzed from a gunshot wound years after Jeremiah’s killing.
Velazquez told Channel 2 that Jeremiah was playing with his friends along Martin Street when he heard gunfire and tried to run away.
The cold case was revived after the child's mother, Betty Anderson, called about the unsolved death last year. Her son was a fifth-grader at Slaton Elementary School at the time.
“I said ‘Thank you, Jesus,” Betty Anderson, who now lives in Alabama, told Channel 2 after she learned of the arrests.
Before the case was reopened, the last tip called in to Crime Stoppers was in 2007. Tipsters often mentioned the names “Rod” and “Ray.”
Velazquez said they arrests should send a message to criminals.
“We’re determined no matter how old the case is, there’s no statute of limitations on murder and if you committed a murder in any year, 1970, and we open that case back up, and you’re still living, we’ll come after you,” Velazquez said.
About the Author
