A 15-year-old boy is facing felony charges after police accused him of robbing a group of pre-teenagers at gunpoint while they were selling water in Buckhead.
The teen was taken into custody by Atlanta police Tuesday, nearly a month after the alleged robbery, police said.
The 11- and 12-year-old boys were selling bottled water near Peachtree and Lenox roads July 12, according to Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. John Chafee. One of the victims said his sister and several friends were with them, according to an incident report.
Three people wearing black approached the group, the report said. The 15-year-old pulled out a handgun and demanded their money, Chafee said.
After taking the money, one of the suspects punched one of the victims in the stomach, the report said. The attackers then ran away.
“Investigators began gathering information on what occurred and working to determine the identity of the suspect,” Chafee said. Three days after the robbery, an officer saw a child that matched the description of the suspect and stopped him.
Warrants were taken out charging the teen with armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was taken to the Metro Youth Detention Center.
The arrest comes as police are working to curb the number of young people selling water along Atlanta streets. The mayor’s office announced a crackdown on unpermitted water sales following a string of violent incidents across the city.
“We appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of youth who are selling water to motorists,” Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms previously said in a statement. “But we have seen an increase in unsafe and violent activity in some locations and cannot allow it to continue.”
On July 16, a driver was shot twice after he reportedly refused to buy water from a group of teens on I-20 exit ramp to Lee Street.
Later that day, a 14-year-old selling water at a busy Buckhead intersection was detained by police after reportedly flashing a pistol at a driver stopped at Peachtree Drive and Piedmont Road. When officers searched the teen, they found a handgun and marijuana, police said. He was charged and released to his aunt that afternoon.
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