Police arrest 2 teens in killing of baby in stroller
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - The mother of a baby shot dead in his stroller took one look at a teenage suspect's jailhouse mugshot Saturday and said he was definitely the killer. Yet an aunt of the teen said he was eating breakfast with her when the slaying took place.
Despite the conflicting stories, police have charged 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins with murder, along with a 14-year-old suspect whose name has been withheld because he's a juvenile.
Brunswick police spokesman Todd Rhodes said even though Elkins' aunt provided an alibi, authorities have good reason to bring the charges.
"That's what she's saying, but the evidence we're looking at says something else," Rhodes said, though he would not elaborate.
Also Saturday, police in this coastal port city released 911 recordings from neighbors who sobbed and pleaded for help right after 13-month-old Antonio Santiago was shot in the head a few blocks from his mother's apartment.
Sherry West said she was pushing her baby in his stroller as she walked home from the post office Thursday morning. She said a teenager, with a younger boy behind him, approached and asked her for money. West said when she told him she had no money, the teen drew a gun and said: "Do you want me to kill your baby?"
The gunman opened fire and West was shot in the leg, while another bullet grazed her left ear, she said. She watched helplessly as the gunman shot her son in the face, she said.
Two teddy bears, a vase of flowers and a decorative cross had been left Saturday against a wooden fence near the shooting scene.
Katrina Freeman said Saturday the shooter can't be her nephew, Elkins, because he showed up at her house Thursday at 8:15 a.m. - roughly an hour before the killing. She said she cooked eggs, grits and sausage for breakfast and that Elkins accompanied her and her children to run errands when they left at about 11:30 a.m.
"He was with us the whole time," said Freeman, adding that she gave police the same account of her nephew's whereabouts. "There is no doubt in my mind that he is innocent."
The slain boy's mother said she picked the gunman out of a photo lineup of 24 mugshots police brought to her Friday. When a reporter showed her the photo of Elkins taken when he was booked into the Glynn County jail Friday, she wept and nodded.
"He killed my baby, and he shot me, too," she said.
At her apartment Saturday, West had filled several bags with her son's clothes and diapers to donate to charity. She said she hopes prosecutors pursue the death penalty in the case.
"My baby will never be back again," West said, sobbing. "He took an innocent life. I want his life, too."
In 2008, West's 18-year-old son was stabbed to death in an altercation in New Jersey. Prosecutors said the stabbing was self-defense and did not file charges.
In Georgia, police said they are still searching for the gun. No eyewitnesses have come forward.
In the 911 recordings, two callers said they heard gunshots and then saw West take her son out of his stroller, lay him on the ground and try to revive him using CPR.
"Yes, I heard the shots. Somebody shot this child," said one sobbing caller, who told the operator there were three shots fired. "She's got him on the ground. Please, we need everything we can get."
The 911 operators asked the callers if the boy was breathing. Finally, a man in a grave voice, answers: "No, the baby's not breathing." He says the child was shot "right between the eyes."
A woman can be heard screaming in the background just before police arrive. Sirens drowned out her cries.
Elkins' relatives said Saturday they don't know if he has an attorney. His older sister, Sabrina Elkins, said police arrested him as he came to her home Friday.
"The police came pointing a Taser at him, telling him to get on the ground," she said. "He said, 'What are you getting me for? Can you tell me what I did?'"
The suspect's sister said he returned to Brunswick a couple of months ago after living in Atlanta for a while. While he wasn't enrolled in high school, she said, he had been taking classes to earn his GED.
"He couldn't have done that to a little baby," Sabrina Elkins said. "My brother has a good heart."
Despite the conflicting stories, police have charged 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins with murder, along with a 14-year-old suspect whose name has been withheld because he's a juvenile.
Brunswick police spokesman Todd Rhodes said even though Elkins' aunt provided an alibi, authorities have good reason to bring the charges.
"That's what she's saying, but the evidence we're looking at says something else," Rhodes said, though he would not elaborate.
Also Saturday, police in this coastal port city released 911 recordings from neighbors who sobbed and pleaded for help right after 13-month-old Antonio Santiago was shot in the head a few blocks from his mother's apartment.
Sherry West said she was pushing her baby in his stroller as she walked home from the post office Thursday morning. She said a teenager, with a younger boy behind him, approached and asked her for money. West said when she told him she had no money, the teen drew a gun and said: "Do you want me to kill your baby?"
The gunman opened fire and West was shot in the leg, while another bullet grazed her left ear, she said. She watched helplessly as the gunman shot her son in the face, she said.
Two teddy bears, a vase of flowers and a decorative cross had been left Saturday against a wooden fence near the shooting scene.
Katrina Freeman said Saturday the shooter can't be her nephew, Elkins, because he showed up at her house Thursday at 8:15 a.m. - roughly an hour before the killing. She said she cooked eggs, grits and sausage for breakfast and that Elkins accompanied her and her children to run errands when they left at about 11:30 a.m.
"He was with us the whole time," said Freeman, adding that she gave police the same account of her nephew's whereabouts. "There is no doubt in my mind that he is innocent."
The slain boy's mother said she picked the gunman out of a photo lineup of 24 mugshots police brought to her Friday. When a reporter showed her the photo of Elkins taken when he was booked into the Glynn County jail Friday, she wept and nodded.
"He killed my baby, and he shot me, too," she said.
At her apartment Saturday, West had filled several bags with her son's clothes and diapers to donate to charity. She said she hopes prosecutors pursue the death penalty in the case.
"My baby will never be back again," West said, sobbing. "He took an innocent life. I want his life, too."
In 2008, West's 18-year-old son was stabbed to death in an altercation in New Jersey. Prosecutors said the stabbing was self-defense and did not file charges.
In Georgia, police said they are still searching for the gun. No eyewitnesses have come forward.
In the 911 recordings, two callers said they heard gunshots and then saw West take her son out of his stroller, lay him on the ground and try to revive him using CPR.
"Yes, I heard the shots. Somebody shot this child," said one sobbing caller, who told the operator there were three shots fired. "She's got him on the ground. Please, we need everything we can get."
The 911 operators asked the callers if the boy was breathing. Finally, a man in a grave voice, answers: "No, the baby's not breathing." He says the child was shot "right between the eyes."
A woman can be heard screaming in the background just before police arrive. Sirens drowned out her cries.
Elkins' relatives said Saturday they don't know if he has an attorney. His older sister, Sabrina Elkins, said police arrested him as he came to her home Friday.
"The police came pointing a Taser at him, telling him to get on the ground," she said. "He said, 'What are you getting me for? Can you tell me what I did?'"
The suspect's sister said he returned to Brunswick a couple of months ago after living in Atlanta for a while. While he wasn't enrolled in high school, she said, he had been taking classes to earn his GED.
"He couldn't have done that to a little baby," Sabrina Elkins said. "My brother has a good heart."
@EMTlady, @DTÂ Â This morning they charged the younger kid with murder, : The teen's mother, the article on CNN reads: Brenda Moses, told CNN earlier that her son was "just a witness," and "he didn't do anything wrong." Now, what do you think about the mother's story? I do believe she has been telling the truth all along.
Joe Biden told me it's because some guy in Alaska and Texas own a 30 clip semi-automatic rifle that made this non-white no-profiled young man commit these crimes. Â It's those gun owners in Alaska and Texas with high capacity semi-automatic rifles that killed this baby.
@NWDemocrat Yeah, Joe's out in left field on most issues. And when he's not, he's spending 600K of our tax dollars on a weekend in Paris.
Me thinks there is much more to this story than meets the eye.. Â Many questions come to my mind, including the mental state of the mom prior to the incident. Â I hope they checked the mom's hands for gunshot residue. Â This may seem harsh, but her comments about the baby in heaven being potty trained now, seemed to be rehearsed. Â Extremely sad story. Â Â
@EMTlady And you think you know more about this tragic event than the people walking by, the neighbors who ran out of their houses when they heard the gun shot, the police who have investigated the murder and have actually interviewed the people who are accused of the shooting. You must be brilliant!
@EMTlady in his Fb page he was talking about how people need forgiveness after doing something stupid. and it seems that they have their person after was already picked up and she identified him out of 24 pics. and if you saw your baby get shot in the face would you be making sense?
@beetle73 @EMTlady Just my point.  She was making sense...people in shock usually don't make sense.  I do not know if the young man did it or not.  The facts are muddled.  I still am under the impression that the facts really may be different.  I do feel for this mom, she will feel the loss of her child, no matter the facts.
@beetle73 @EMTlady shooting a baby between the eyes is far more than "doing something stupid". any idea who took the FB page down?
This is the kind of situation that leads to civil unrest and riots. Let's wait until all the facts come out before anyone jumps to conclusions.
@Ankle Biter All the more reason I think the cops over there must have something solid on Elkins, otherwise they wouldn't have arrested, I think I saw a headline that said he had been charged already also.
I've been so perplexed at the attitude of many people who have posted remarks after the articles about this poor little baby. I just couldn't understand why they seemed to want to blame the mom. I watched the videos, and it's obvious to me this woman is beyond devestated. But, I believe I've finally figured it out. People want to blame mom because they are terrified. If it can happen to her, it can happen to them and no one wants to believe that is possible.
@justmyopinion I think that people doubted her story at first.  It was a bizarre story and really random. You do understand how many "black guys" are used as a convenient scapegoat in many crimes, which later turn out to be false? Â
The story at first seemed to be lacking credibility. Â The Elkins kid was an alibi, that is easily corroborated by his cousins, and other means. Â I'm still not going to make a judgment on it, until more facts come out. Â
And the attempt by the media to make the mother even more sympathetic about "losing another son" is sketchy on the fact that her first son was ambushed and was trying to kill another kid when he was stabbed in self defense. Â
@DT @justmyopinion Lots of bizarre events happen every day. It's bizarre for a display board to fall off of the wall and kill a child. It's bizarre for a man to strangle both of his grandparents. Just because it's unusual doesn't mean it's impossible. I am, of course, familiar with the "black guys" senario, but guess what? Sometimes it's true. Did the guy they've arrested do it? I don't know, maybe...or maybe not. Is the aunt lying? I don't know. No one except the people involved know, but the witnesses who were at the scene moments after the shooting seem to believe the mom. I guess that's why we let courts decide these things, instead of the court of public opinion.
So the child was cremated and buried the day after shooting? Really? No complete autopsy?
Makes it very easy for the defense to create all sorts of doubt.  A pretty bungled way to handle an investigation. Â
Eyewitness testimony is the least reliable evidence out there so the mom's id of him isn't that great - especially when the second best suspect may be the mom. They are going to need physical evidence or this case will fall apart very quickly.
@NBA_Is_Useless Where did you read that an autopsy wasn't done? I'd be interested in reading that article.Â
@justmyopinion Haven't read that yet. Fair enough. I am assuming something here.
But a criminal investigation autopsy started, finished, child cremated in less than 36 hours from time of death? Let's just say I'm suspicious that it was as complete as it ought to be if it happened.
@NBA_Is_Useless @justmyopinion I don't know about this lady, but I can say for myself I might do the same thing. Just the thought of my baby laying in a refrigerated drawer in a morgue or funeral home would be more than I could handle.
@NBA_Is_Useless @justmyopinion  gotta love google. copied and pasted from a NJ website - autopies pertinent in that state:
6. How long does an autopsy take?
A standard forensic autopsy will take about two to three hours.
7. Will an autopsy delay our funeral arrangements?
Complicated cases may take longer than 2-3 hours, but in most cases, should not delay usual funeral arrangements. After the autopsy, the body is released to the funeral home. The funeral home prepares the body for viewing.
If it is found that the 17 yo is the shooter then his aunt needs to share in the punishment for aiding and abetting by trying to give him a bogus alibi.
@FBrumfield OR the woman has the wrong guy.  Ever think of that???
@DTÂ @FBrumfield kinda funny that before his Facebook was taking down he was talking about forgiveness after doing something stupid.
@DT @FBrumfield He did say "if", so I'm guessing his mind is not totally closed to the possibility.
A 17 year old boy has breakfast with his aunt then hangs out with her all day? Doesn't sound very likely to me. That's not typical activity for any normal 17 year old boy. Sounds like a typical cover story to me. I think the aunt is lying through her teeth.
@johnbe I'm sorry that your family doesn't like hanging around with you.  That behavior doesn't sound at all weird.  That sounds like pretty typical "older cousin" behavior to me.  Kids hang out with cousins all the time.  And they DO show up to eat... boys that age eat a lot.Â
@DT
My family doesn't like hanging around with me, huh? Knowing them, they're going to want to know where I heard that line of crap. I assume it's ok if I say "DT said so".
Why is the cop on CNN talking about motives? What motive could there be to kill a baby?Â
@Insomniac Dreams You would have to be a sick, twisted,POS Lowlife to understand that.
@S_Hunter @Insomniac DreamsÂ
They will probably make a case that the kid grew up in the ghetto without a father, and that he was a product of the society, abused as a child, etc.. Perverted liberals will turn the suspect into a victim no matter what crime they commit. The motive is clear in this story, the killer is subhuman and should be put down like an animal
If he was running errands with his Aunt during this time, I would think someone at one of the errand destinations would have seen him and can verify. If his Aunt is telling the truth and not just trying to cover for him.
Watching her I get the feeling of a helpless, uneducated mother, who's lived a hard life with many hardships. I don't get the feeling that she's lying, or that she did this to her baby. And yes, if this baby was shot earlier by the mother, the body would cool rapidly, vs being warm immediately after death. And gunshot wounds postmortem do not bleed like a gunshot wound to someone living at the time. Or if she actually shot the baby instead and blamed a scape goat? I find that very hard to believe anyone would do as a "cover up". Too many possible witnesses.
I do not believe I would be any where near level-headed enough to pack my baby's things the next day. But others might need to remove everything from their sight. Who can say.Â
I agree that as evidence is collected this story will become more clear. It is strange that the baby's body was cremated so rapidly; that is surprising.@Thunder what if it's an ex boyfriend who did it?  None of the witnesses saw the boys at the location, only heard the gunshot and saw the mom doing CPR.  I'm not doubting her completely, but I have seen to many "the black guy did this" lies to cover up who did the real crime.  Those kinds of lies do get the racists riled up....  something feels a bit off about this one. Â
@DT @Thunder  white baby. southern Georgia. we will see how the evidence plays out.
@Thunder I don't think she had any control over how soon the cremation took place. Also, she was packing up her stuff too, because she was afraid of retaliation, sounds like a bad neighborhood, she said she hardly ever went out. There are neighborhoods like that. And she was on pain medication, and in shock, so there's that.Â
Plus the police would have investigated the scene of the crime and taken pictures, etc.Â
Still, she does seem to talk too much and is acting kind of weird in the interviews- You would think she would tell those vultures from the press to beat it. But, if someone kills your baby, maybe it flips your reactions.Â
@Insomniac Dreams Of course she'd have a say in how soon the body was cremated. That's ridiculous.Â
@Insomniac Dreams @jennieb @DT Where did you read that there was no autopsy? I've not seen that anyplace, but people keep making the comment. It only takes a couple of hours to do one, so it's not impossible that one was done. As for the creamation, I would probably want it done as soon as possible. I wouldn't be able to get past thinking about my poor baby laying in a refrigerated drawer someplace.
@jennieb @Insomniac Dreams @DT It does seem odd that they didn't want an autopsy.
@Insomniac Dreams @DT she is getting assistance from the St. Vincent dePaul Society - said one news source. Odd to believe, that if the state is in fact picking up the tab, the cornoner did not keep the body longer. 24hrs? if evidence rests with the now cremated baby, the killer may get a pass.
@DTÂ Maybe if she was paying for it, but I suspect the state is picking up the tab, if she is so poor she had to live in that hellhole neighborhood.Â
So, they probably took care of that process right away, because no one is paying to store the body for any sort of funeral or memorial.Â
Again, this is all speculation here. Â
@Insomniac Dreams Interesting info. I believe you about the bad neighborhoods. Case in point in this story. And I assume she was afraid of retaliation then, because she fingered the alleged suspect, right? I didn't see that in this story or remember hearing it in the video, but didn't read any other news sources.
And why would she not have a say in how quickly the body was cremated? My husband's mother recently passed and until the funds could be released from her small account, we waited weeks to be able to cremate her. It was around $700. Is it different? I would think the coroner would step in and therefore it would be a lot longer.
And actually the pain meds (missed that too, maybe another story), could easily account for her somewhat strange interview. And I get the feeling from her that she is someone who is not going to stand up for herself and tell the press to beat it. More like someone who would soak up attention because she is needy in a lonely way. But, I could be way off base too. All speculation on my part, which is intriguing to do, but doesn't make truth. :)
@Thunder At least you admit the truth about speculation. Commendable! Very rare to see that level of honesty here.
@Thunder I was just poking around other news sites to assemble my speculation, we all do that, it's human nature.Â
There were 3 911 calls, plus there's this;
-----------
 Brunswick police have said little about what evidence led them to Elkins or the younger suspect. Police spokesman Todd Rhodes said Saturday that he's not surprised Elkins' aunt would try to protect him.
"That's what she's saying, but the evidence we're looking at says something else," Rhodes said. He would not elaborate
------------
If they release more evidence that proves those boys did it, I am going to feel terrible about suspecting the mom.Â
The EMT's and police were there, can't they tell if the baby was, what, shot elsewhere and then brought there in a stroller? What are the logistics of doing that? Sadly, I believe that the baby was shot as she said, which is hard to comprehend also. When the evidence is collected it will become more clear one way or another. It's sad either way.
@Insomniac Dreams yes, agreed, very sad either way.
I can't see the "guilty" body language everyone else is talking about. It's easy to say don't judge and convict the teenagers without proof, but saying the woman killed her own kid and framed the others because she wanted to get rid of her kid based on some perceived look is harsh. She's been telling her story over and over--it's hard enough keeping a voicemail straight much less the death of a child. Cut her some slack until the investigation.
That's just plain sickening. Damn well better charge that suspect as an adult! Absolutely sickened by this! That just makes me mad!
@Zoso If he is guilty, they'll go on about his; upbringing, low chances at whatever line of BS they want to insert there, poor homelife, etc (BS) etc (BS) etc, (MORE BS), to try to "explain" his actions. AGAIN, if he is guilty.
Personally, it sounds like he is, BUT I would rather wait until the investigation is over.
We can't find out from the bullet who owned that gun? There's no cameras outside of post offices? No other witnesses?
I feel so sorry reading such stories. Give more guns to kids and people and this will continue. How sad. So sad. How does one kill a baby?
@seattleseattleNo, you would need the serial number off the gun for identification I believe.You can tell what type of gun was used, but not who owned it. I feel like there is more to this story than this though, something seems fishy to me.Â
@Isadora @seattleseattle  if there is no bullet to recover, it cannot be matched to a gun. Did the bullet pass through the baby? or did it lodge in the baby's skull? if no bullet is found; and if the story of the passer by is verified, that the baby was shot between the eyes; then the bullet must be in in the baby - who is now cremated (according to one source).
OK I'll wait, but at this point I think they have their killer.Â
I am usually a "hang em high" kind of gal, but this story reeks. Not buying mom's story.Â
@janeandspot because she put her baby in a stroller, rolled it down the sidewalk, shot her kid between the eyes, shot herself non-fatally and tried to revive the kid? Sounds suspicious to me too.
@chandler WOW