Lamon Freeman, Jakody Davis shooting | Atlanta police investigate

ATLANTA — Atlanta police said they will spare no effort to find those responsible for the shooting deaths of two juveniles. Officers spent hours Friday combing the Oakland City neighborhood where the shooting occurred.

Police said the shooting happened as the children stood on the front steps of their apartment building at the intersection of Sparks and Peeples streets in the Oakland City neighborhood on July 2. The triple shooting killed Lamon Freeman and Jakody Davis, both 13. Jakody’s younger brother, DJ, was also injured.

Neighbors told 11Alive that Lamon was celebrating his birthday and the boys had just finished singing the “Happy Birthday” song when the shots rang out.

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“We have two families that are impacted by gun violence. Justice needs to be served; we need to bring people to justice to hold them accountable,” said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.

The operation required an arsenal of forces, from motorcycle cops to mounted police. The APD even flew its helicopter to patrol the air. The group of cops handed out leaflets in hopes of catching the suspects in the shooting.

“What we know at this point in the case is that we had potentially six suspects who parked two vehicles on the other side of these apartments. They were walking behind me on foot and opened fire on the three juveniles without apparent provocation,” said Maj. Peter Malecki.

To encourage tips and help bring the suspect to justice, the reward for information leading to an arrest has been increased to $50,000.

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“These kids didn’t appear to be doing anything; in fact, they were there to celebrate the birthday of one of the kids who was fatally shot, so this is important to the police department,” Malecki added.

Chief Schierbaum was also out and about knocking on doors and talking to residents.

“Over the last two weeks, we’ve been a very busy police department. You’ve protected the presidential debate, you’ve all protected the world’s greatest 10,000 meters, but this is bigger than that,” Chief Schierbaum told the officers participating in the operation.

Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS.