Atlanta police on Friday announced three arrests in a fatal shooting near the Atlanta Fair earlier this month.
Joshua Adetunji, a 16-year-old, was shot and killed during a March 5 fight near Pryor and Bass streets in southwest Atlanta. Two other teenagers — ages 14 and 19 — were wounded by bullets during the shooting.
Police said two of the suspects are juveniles who’ve been charged with murder. Their names and ages were not released.
The third is Marquez D. Harris, 19, who faces charges of murder, aggravated assault with intent to murder and criminal attempt to commit murder, Fulton County booking records show.
Atlanta police Homicide Commander Lt. Ralph Woolfolk said investigators had to interview dozens of witnesses and comb through hours of surveillance footage to find the suspects.
He indicated investigators believe Harris was the shooter while the two juveniles were likely accomplices.
“Our homicide unit has worked very diligently through this investigation,” Woolfolk said during a news conference at police headquarters late Friday afternoon. “This was very intricate in the fact that there were many players involved, a lot of people that we needed to identify. There was a lot of vehicle and pedestrian traffic on this evening when the fair was letting out.”
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
A fugitive task force took Harris into custody along Highview Road in southwest Atlanta on Friday, according to Woolfolk. He was questioned at police headquarters, then arrested.
Woolfolk said the argument that led to the shooting stemmed from a pre-existing dispute. He didn’t say what the nature of the argument was, but Adetunji was among the group involved in the dispute moments before the shooting.
“Forty percent of our homicides are attributed to escalating disputes,” Woolfolk said. “This is, once again, an incident in which an argument escalated into gunfire.”
Both teens wounded in the shooting are stable. Woolfolk said no more arrests are expected in the case.
“Everybody just needs to take a deep breath. We need to embrace one another, we need a little more empathy and understanding,” Woolfolk said. “The amount of conflict that we’re seeing in our society and the inability to de-escalate situations is certainly playing a factor with our homicides here in the city of Atlanta.”
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