Rockdale parties prompt ‘zero tolerance' policy from police

Authorities in Conyers are taking a “zero tolerance” policy toward house parties such as the one that claimed the life of an 18-year old early Sunday, Conyers Police Chief Gene Wilson told the AJC.

“What I’ve heard in the last 48 hours is that the community has had enough of these large parties,” said Wilson, who told the AJC he met with the Rockdale County Sheriff and other officials Monday morning.

The meeting followed an incident on Treeleaf Lane early Sunday. Police went to the house twice: once around 9 p.m. Saturday because of a noise complaint, and then again after midnight after three teenagers were shot.

Dequavious Stephon Mapp, 18, later died at Atlanta Medical Center.

A 16-year-old was in critical condition and a 15-year-old in stable condition Sunday after shots were fired at the house on Treeleaf Lane.

Rockdale Magistrate Court Judge Clarence Horne denied bond Monday morning for the shooting suspects, Tevin Williams and James Edwards.

Horne set bond at $1,000 for the house tenant, Jeavoye Jones, who was charged with keeping a disorderly house.

That house party wasn’t the only one going on in Conyers that night, Wilson said.

Another one, a couple of miles away, drew about 100 kids. The theme was “Rains Boots and a Thong,” from the song by the hip-hop group, EDUBB, Wilson said.

Take those two parties and add the one in Douglas County where 18-year-old Bobby Tillman was stomped to death, and Wilson said it was enough for his officers to decide they need to take a tougher stance from now on.

“When we get there, if there’s any violation … I don’t care if it’s state law, I don’t’ care if it’s city ordinance, if it’s a licensing violation, a zoning violation, a parking violation, a sanitation violation, we’re going to make cases that we can make,” he said.

“It’s obviously that [these parties] have become more violent. We want our kids to have a good time, but at the same time, they are not going to take over the neighborhood and be in the middle of a Wild West shootout.”

Police told Channel 2 Action News that there were up to 75 people at the party on Treeleaf Lane. There were two parties combined -- one for a 17-year-old girl's birthday and one for a tenant to raise money for his rent, police said. There was a $3 entrance fee, a DJ and security guards, authorities said.

One of the security guards was a high school student, Wilson said. He was armed with a shot gun, Wilson told the AJC.

Wilson said the entire downstairs of the house was empty with nothing but stereo speakers and a rollaway bed.

It’s unclear exactly what led to the shooting. Reports of a fight between a female and a male partygoer may have started the trouble, Wilson said.

He also has reports of attendees flashing gang signs.

“What we’re dealing with here … it’s local groups, usually based on a geographic area, a housing area or a particular road or something like that,” Wilson said. “I don’t know if it’s a group, a clique, but they have a gang attitude, but either way, they got to flashing gang signs and there were some words exchanged.”

Wilson said the party hosts ran those people out of the house, but when they got outside, they started shooting.

“We’re talking about 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 year-old-kids here,” Wilson said. “At 3 in the morning, nobody knew where they were. I had kids shot; I had kids running around with guns.”

Mapp's mother, Sandra Snow, said Mapp came home Saturday night from his part-time job and told her a friend was coming over to the family's Conyers home.

"They're usually in for the night," Snow told the AJC.

Snow was asleep when she got a phone call from one of her daughters telling her Dequavious was in the emergency room.

“No. It’s not right. He’s in his room. He’d been here all night," Snow said she told her daughter. "But he wasn’t here."

Snow said she has learned that her son was invited to a party, and friend picked up Dequavious and a female friend and drove them to the party.

Snow said Dequavious's death came just a year after her oldest son, Durante Mapp, was shot to death in DeKalb County.

“He had been struggling with himself because he lost his brother," Snow said. "But he was coming around. He had a part-time job that he loved. And he had just bought himself a Honda.”