A triple shooting during a neighborhood cookout was likely an act of retaliation and possibly gang-related, Fulton County police said Tuesday. They believe the man injured was the intended target. Two innocent children — ages 3 and 5 — also shot as they played in an inflatable bounce house were simply caught in the line of fire, police said.
Investigators believe Demetrius “Meeko” Gordon, 23, was the gunman and he has been arrested, Chief Gary Stiles said. Police are seeking four other suspects.
Neighbors on Buckhurt Drive, near College Park, were hosting a cookout on April 20 when several shots were fired. Megan Holmes thought someone was setting off fireworks for the kids until she heard screams. She ran toward the bounce house, where her two youngest children had been playing. When she got to her 3-year-old, Lawrence, he was bleeding.
"Mom, they shot me! They shot me!" Lawrence was screaming.
Lawrence was shot in the back and needed surgery to close his wound, his mother said. He was released from the hospital the following day. A 5-year-old girl’s injuries were more serious, and she remained in the hospital Tuesday in stable condition. Her name was not released. The man who was shot, whose name also was not released, was treated at the hospital and released.
Witnesses of the shooting reported seeing five men in a silver SUV. That SUV was later found abandoned, police said.
Holmes said late Tuesday that she doesn’t know Gordon, but she’s relieved there has been an arrest in the shooting.
“I’m glad they got him so that he doesn’t come back,” Holmes told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “If he was bold enough to (fire shots) near a bounce house, he’s bold enough to come back.”
On Monday, Gordon was arrested at his home and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was being held at the Fulton jail late Tuesday.
In November, Gordon was released from Hays State Prison, where he served just over four years for hijacking a motor vehicle and aggravated assault, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Anyone with information regarding the other four suspects is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS or the Fulton police confidential tip line at 404-613-6529.
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