One month ago, Melvin Cleveland, a 74-year-old newly diagnosed dementia patient and retired General Motors employee, stepped out of his DeKalb County home to investigate a rustling. A man was rolling a wheelbarrow across the yard at about 11:30 a.m.
Cleveland’s caregiver then heard a loud noise outside the Kings Park Way home in unincorporated Decatur. She found Cleveland in the yard clutching his chest, shot, with blood pouring.
By Wednesday, DeKalb police detectives were still struggling to find the killer who fled the scene on Nov. 18. The wheelbarrow was left there.
"No arrest or new leads at this time,” Maj. Stephen Fore, department spokesman, said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Many questions persist in the information that’s been made public. Chief among them is why this man would shoot Cleveland.
The caretaker saw the shooter run away and provided a description to officers, though as it’s included in the initial incident report, it isn’t very specific.
Police ask anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477, by text at 274637 or visiting crimestoppersatlanta.org.
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