Stardrecous Brooks said she heard about five gunshots overnight Wednesday in her northwest Atlanta neighborhood as she left to go to the store, but she didn’t think much about it.
Her son called around 2 a.m. while he was out with a friend looking for a scooter at a nearby home. Hours later, her fears about his safety started to grow, she said.
“I called the police. By that time, I was on the way back home because the officers told me to come home,” Brooks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the scene near Westside Park. “When I hit that corner right there, I saw everything.”
Brooks then approached her son, who was lying on the ground. That’s when she broke down. “They said my son’s gone,” she said.
While police have not shared any details about the victim, Brooks identified him as 16-year-old Jakari Rayshard Brooks, the nephew of Rayshard Brooks, who was fatally shot by an Atlanta police officer in June 2020 during a struggle in a Wendy’s parking lot.
On Wednesday, Atlanta police responded around 4:30 a.m. to the 1000 block of Cato Street, where officers found Jakari suffering from a gunshot wound. The teenager was pronounced dead at the scene by medical crews.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
It was the third time Stardrecous Brooks has had to grieve a family member, after the recent death of her father and the 2020 deadly shooting of her brother, Rayshard.
Two officers had tried to arrest him on a DUI charge that night after he fell asleep in the drive-thru lane at the Wendy’s on University Avenue. A struggle ensued and Rayshard Brooks took an officer’s Taser and fired it at another officer, who shot him twice in the back. The killing further ignited protests over racial injustice during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wednesday’s incident was also the second time a teen in northwest Atlanta had been shot over a 12-hour span. On Tuesday afternoon, an 18-year-old boy was taken to the hospital in critical condition after being struck by gunfire in the area of Vine and Magnolia streets.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
According to police, a motive is unclear in both shootings and no arrests have been made.
Stardrecous Brooks said she is still trying to understand what happened to her boy.
“This is a tragic situation. I have five kids, four boys and one girl — and he was the baby,” she said.
About the Authors
