Police have released a sketch of a man considered a person of interest in an August apartment shooting that left a DeKalb County teenager dead and another boy wounded.
Demarco Williams, 18, was killed Aug. 26 by gunshots when multiple men opened fire outside his apartment complex, according to a police report. He was unconscious when police arrived and later declared dead while being taken to the hospital, the report said.
Investigators believe the man in the sketch may have approached Williams hours before the shooting, DeKalb police spokeswoman Michaela Vincent said. Williams’ family spoke with the media Monday when the sketch was released.
“I’m going to get justice for my son,” the boy’s father, Joey Williams, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “These scumbags need to be locked up.”
Williams said he believes the shooting took place because the men mistakenly thought his son had stolen a gun. He said the man in the sketch was watching Demarco as part of a setup and that the attack on his son was premeditated.
The shooting took place at the Lakes at Indian Creek Apartments in Clarkston. Demarco Williams was sitting outside in a pavilion with two other boys before the shooting started, according to the police report. Three men who they did not know approached them and began shooting, the report said.
Williams and one other boy were both struck by gunfire, but it is unclear what happened to the third boy. He was not at the scene when police arrived, according to the report. The other injured boy fled to an apartment and was later taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, the police report said.
A witness told police that he heard several gunshots and saw two men leaving the scene, one carrying an AK-47 and one carrying a handgun. Two other witnesses said they saw a dark gray Toyota Camry pull away from the complex right after the shooting, according to the police report.
DeKalb police found multiple shell casings and a cellphone at the scene, according to the report. Joey Williams told police the phone did not belong to his son.
DeKalb police released the sketch Monday after exhausting all other leads in the case, Vincent said. Joey Williams believes the man pictured may have changed his appearance from what can be seen in the sketch.
“He used to have an Afro, but he might have braided his hair into cornrows now,” said Williams, who described the man as very tall and skinny. He believes the man lives in the same neighborhood.
Williams hopes that someone will come forward with information about his son’s killing.
“If I had some money, I would like to bless them tremendously if someone could be that bold,” he said of anyone who might come forward with information about the shooters. “Somebody knows something.”
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the DeKalb police department’s Homicide/Assault Unit at 770-724-7850. Tips can also be left anonymously through Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-8477. Anonymous tipsters could be eligible for a reward for information leading to an arrest.
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