A second suspect was arrested last week in connection with a targeted shooting in August at a troubled southwest Atlanta apartment complex that left a 6-month-old boy dead and his parents injured.
Deshown Woodward, 19, of Atlanta, was booked into the Fulton County Jail on a murder charge, among other counts, Monday, according to arrest warrants obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He joins another suspect named in the warrants, Jariath McDowell, who was arrested March 30, online jail records show.
According to the warrants, Woodward and McDowell are accused of shooting into a car at the Hills at Greenbriar apartment complex on Campbellton Road on Aug. 30. Three people were shot, including 6-month-old Charles Watson Jr., who was in the car with his parents, the warrants said.
Charles Watson Sr. suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to the hospital in “extreme critical condition,” the warrants said. Watson survived and was later able to identify Woodward as the shooter, according to the court documents.
The infant’s mother was also taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound that was not life-threatening, but the child did not survive, the warrants said. Weeks after the shooting, the woman was able to identify Woodward as the suspect in a blind photo lineup, according to the police officer’s affidavit.
Though the warrants included few other details, they imply that at least one of the victims and one of the suspects knew each other.
After the shooting, police said they tracked the suspects’ car to a location in Stone Mountain near where Watson had previously given McDowell a ride to meet his girlfriend. In the incident’s immediate aftermath, police also said they believed the fatal shooting was related to another shooting at the same apartment complex three months prior.
Both McDowell and Woodward are facing one count of murder, three counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, the warrants said. They both remain in the Fulton jail without bond, according to online records.
The Hills at Greenbriar was among 275 complexes identified in the AJC’s “Dangerous Dwellings” investigation that looked into serious crimes, lax maintenance and other hazards in Atlanta neighborhoods. The complex, formerly known as The Life at Greenbriar, is located behind an Atlanta fire station and just north of Langford Parkway.
Since the AJC’s investigation, owners of the Hills at Greenbriar said they have hired a new property management company and implemented major changes at the complex. In the past year, more than 100 rules-violating tenants have been evicted and revenues have increased significantly, according to a representative for the new property manager, Dick James, former president of R. James Properties Inc.
“At this point, the property is clean, quiet, and well-maintained,” James said.
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