Nearly eight months after a 17-year-old boy was shot to death at an Atlanta pool, officers have charged a suspect with murder, police said late Wednesday.
Fernando Leanthony Felton, 19, had been on the run since the July 24 shooting that killed Jakari Dillard at Anderson Pool, according to police. Felton was soon identified as a suspect in the shooting, but investigators initially couldn’t find him.
Late last week, the APD fugitive unit along with federal officers located and arrested Felton in East Point. Early Thursday, Felton was being held without bond at the Fulton County jail, booking records show.
Days after Jakari’s death, his mother told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she was worried about gun violence and was protective of her children.
“I didn’t want to be one of the other moms doing what the other parents are doing and grieving,” Courtney Dillard said.
Credit: Family photo
Credit: Family photo
Dillard had allowed four of her children and their aunt to go to the pool on a steamy summer afternoon. Later on, she got a phone call that sent her racing to the pool. Jakari had been shot by another teen, Dillard said.
Jakari, who would have been in the 12th grade at Life Christian Academy in Forest Park, had recently told his mom he was looking forward to his senior prom. When his mom saw him bleeding from the chest, she knew it wasn’t good. Jakari died after arriving at the hospital.
An older brother, 19-year-old Jamarcus Dillard, said an argument over a pool game led to the shooting. Jakari hadn’t been involved in the argument, but was still shot, his brother said.
The deadly shooting prompted city officials to temporarily close the public pools during the investigation.
Felton’s criminal history includes two open cases in Fulton County, court and jail records show. He was charged in 2020 with marijuana possession, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a pistol or revolver by a person under 18, and not wearing a motorcycle helmet, according to court records.
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