A large crowd fighting and several people running away from gunfire is just some of the chaos that transpired near a southwest Atlanta skating rink where a 13-year-old was fatally shot, police said Friday.
Deshon DuBose was leaving Cascade Family Skating on Jan. 21 when he was struck by gunfire, police said. Authorities were called to the business along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive around 11:30 p.m. and found the teenager with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died.
Investigators believe he was with a group of teenagers who were at the skating rink before the shooting. On Friday, Atlanta police homicide commander Lt. Germain Dearlove said there was a fight before gunshots went off.
“We believe there was a large group fight that escalated to a shooting,” Dearlove said.
Footage released of the fight shows a large crowd in the middle of the road near the rink. The crowd eventually dispersed and multiple people ran into a parking lot in front of the rink.
No suspects have been named in the shooting, but Dearlove said detectives are working to identify those who were at the scene for more information.
Credit: Atlanta police
Credit: Atlanta police
“I was out there this weekend and watched little Deshon get killed,” resident Duwon Robinson said Monday at an Atlanta City Council meeting. “It’s not the police fault ... Cascade Skating rink knows violence is there — every weekend everybody know those young folks are there, they hide the guns in the bushes.”
Robinson said there was a group near the rink that was firing guns into the air. Another group nearby thought the first group was shooting at them, so the second group started to shoot at the first group, he explained.
“Little Deshon was running and got shot,” Robinson said.
In a previous statement, District 10 Council member Andrea L. Boone, whose district includes Adamsville, called the shooting “deeply disturbing” and abnormal for the area.
“This is a somber time for our community as a young boy’s life was tragically cut short,” she said. “The skating rink has in many ways been a safe haven for families. It has been that way for decades because Cascade Family Skating and the Alexander family have poured love and care into this treasure of southwest Atlanta.”
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477 or online.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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