DeKalb County police have made an arrest in the Jan. 11 shooting death of a DeKalb County teenager who was left for dead on a sidewalk near a MARTA bus stop.
Deandre Seabrooks, 29, was arrested Thursday in Stockbridge — 10 days after 17-year-old Sariah Wilcoxson was shot repeatedly in the 2000 block of Flat Shoals Road, DeKalb police Maj. Stephen Fore said.
Sariah had walked a friend to a nearby bus stop, then went on to a convenience store, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. She was on her way back home when, police say, she was shot repeatedly and her body found by a passerby.
Wilcoxson was headed to military school, which was supposed to be her ticket out of her DeKalb County neighborhood that has seen its share of violence. Just last month, a 4 year old was shot riding his Big Wheel at the same Highlands at East Atlanta Apartments.
The apartment complex houses low-income and working-poor families who have had to live with the surrounding violence. Channel 2 reported the complex is sanctioned for those receiving Section 8 housing assistance and is under the jurisdiction of the Housing Authority of DeKalb County.
“Absolutely senseless,” her uncle Danny Wilcoxson told Channel 2 Action News. “She did not deserve this. Sariah never in trouble.”
The family wants to know how the apartment complex and surrounding area has become so dangerous. “I want to know how many deaths, rapes, armed robberies, murders go on right here,” Danny Wilcoxson said. “Her life ended tragically, senselessly, shot down like a dog on the street and left to lay here.”
“An ongoing dispute is believed to be what led to the shooting,” Fore said.
Seabrooks was taken into custody without incident and is being charged with felony murder.
— Please return to AJC.com for updates.
Lauren Foreman and Rosalind Bentley contributed to this article.
About the Author
