Atlanta shootings: 17-year old to appear in court after shooting five Atlanta highschoolers

A high school teenager will be appearing in an Atlanta court this morning to face five counts of aggravated assault stemming from a May 13 shooting.

17-year-old Marcellus Brooks shot four Therrell High School students and one other teenager yesterday around 4 p.m. It is unknown if the shooter is a student at Therrell High.

Brooks shot the five students at Panther Trail and Childress Drive near the school's campus. Hezekiah Bradford, a student at Therrell, said that he and his brother were walking in the area when they saw about 20 students running and heard at least five gunshots. Bradford and his brother ran into a gas station, and told someone to call 911.

"I'm worried for some of my friends," Bradford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Shavien Dennis told reporters outside of Grady Memorial Hospital that her daughter, Tekevious Redding, was one of the Therrell students shot. She said Redding, a high school senior and mother of one, had just finished her final day of high school and was leaving campus when she was shot in the leg.

"She tried to run and realized she wasn't running anymore," Dennis told the Journal-Constitution. "She was on the ground and she said blood was everywhere."

All of the victims are in stable condition, and two have been released from Grady Memorial.

Investigators say that although the shooting did not occur at the school, the building was put on lockdown to protect students participating in after-school activities.

Brooks was taken into custody by Atlanta police, and booked at the Fulton County Jail. His hearing is scheduled for today at 11 a.m.

Police say a motive for the shooting has not been discovered yet.

"Investigators are following up on information and we are progressing the investigation," Officer John Chafee said in a statement.

The 17-year old was previously arrested in April by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority for felony robbery following a March incident. He was released on bond after 15 days in jail.

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