MARIETTA, Geog. — The almost unimaginable crime made national headlines when it happened.
Two teen boys allegedly walked up to a mother demanding money, then shot her 13-month-old boy in the face in his stroller.
Monday, almost five months after the shooting in Brunswick, Georgia, jury selection began in the trial of one of the accused teens, De’Marquise Elkins, 18.
The trial, dubbed the “Brunswick Baby Killing,” generated so much publicity that authorities moved it out of Glynn County to the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, in Cobb County.
Charged alongside Elkins is Dominique Lang, 15.
Although Lang is a minor, CNN is identifying him because he is charged as an adult and media in the community have been naming him since his arrest.
Elkins’ mother, aunt and sister have also been arrested on various charges alleging that they have hindered the investigation.
The sister, 19-year-old Sabrina Elkins, was arrested on an evidence tampering charge, the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office said.
She is accusing her of helping her mother get rid of the gun authorities say was used to kill the child.
Police found the weapon in a pond about 2 miles from where the baby was shot March 21.
‘Just took a walk with my baby’
The child’s mother, Sherry West put the toddler, Antonio Santiago, in a stroller that day because she said it was good exercise for her heart. West was disabled from a past car accident.
“I just took a walk with my baby,” West said. “I can’t believe that this would happen, and I left early in the morning. I thought you know that there would be less people on the road and I wouldn’t be in anybody’s way walking down that road.
“Apparently, either he targeted me or I was just unfortunate,” she said of her encounter with the gunman.
West said the incident occurred at 9 a.m. Thursday as she was walking home from the post office.
She said two teenagers came up to her. One pointed a gun at her and told her that if she didn’t give him her money, he would shoot her and shoot her baby,
West said the teen fired at her, hitting her in one leg and barely missing her head. The teen, she said, then shot her baby in the face.
West tried to resuscitate her son as bystanders called 911 for help.
It was the second time West lost a son to violence.
Her 18-year-old son was stabbed to death in 2008 in New Jersey.
Leslie Bentz | CNN
