A troubled teen with a violent past allegedly killed his great grandmother with a sword as she tried to run for help.
The 14-year-old was also accused of stabbing his grandmother with the same sword inside the family’s home at 3456 Springridge Drive in Douglasville.
“They wanted that child there because they loved him,” Douglas County Sheriff’s Maj. Tommy Wheeler said. “They never thought he would really do anything to hurt them.”
The attack happened about 5 p.m. after the women told the teen to stop playing video games and go do his chores, Maj. Wheeler said.
It’s unclear who was attacked first, but investigators said the boy’s 77-year-old grandmother was sitting on the couch when the teen retrieved the 3-foot long sword and stabbed her.
“After she was struck, she got out of the house and he caught her just as she was exiting the yard,” Maj. Wheeler said. “She was going for help.”
The woman was stabbed once and sliced several times, Maj. Wheeler said. She was dead by the time officers arrived. Maj. Wheeler would not say where in the body she was stabbed.
The 55-year-old grandmother received a severe cut to the arm and was transported to the hospital, Maj. Wheeler said. He did not release the women's names.
When officers arrived, the 14-year-old was standing on the porch with the sword in one hand and a BB gun in the other, Maj. Wheeler said.
He walked to the edge of the yard and began shooting at the patrol cars, shooting out two of their windows, the major said.
When he dropped the sword, one officer threw a flash bang beside him and then a K-9 unit attacked the boy. Another officer approached and shot him with a Taser, causing him to drop.
The teen, who was not injured, was transported to the Douglas County jail on charges of murder and aggravated assault, Maj. Wheeler said.
Still, even as officers deal with Monday’s crime, they wonder if this could have been prevented.
“It’s a real sad situation,” Maj. Wheeler said. “There is no excuse for this to go on this long. I wish someone had said this kid doesn’t need to be with these people because he’s dangerous.
“Everyone has the potential to be dangerous, but this kid showed he could be dangerous.”
Officers had at least three other involvements with the teen and his family.
Last year, officers had to arrest the teen after he attacked his mother with a toilet seat, Maj. Wheeler said. The boy’s mother, who had given up custody of him when he was about 3 or 4 years old, told him his father had died.
“That’s why he beat his mother. She told him about it, he tore the seat off a toilet and beat her with it,” Maj. Wheeler said. “He’s a disturbed individual.”
Officers also got involved when he was taken to a medical facility to be evaluated. He was later released back to his grandmother, Maj. Wheeler said.
Then in June, the boy was charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly cut his grandmother in the leg with another sword, Maj. Wheeler said.
Officers still have that sword, which belonged to someone else who lived in the home.
“It’s very difficult to see a child do something like that. Somebody failed this kid,” Maj. Wheeler said. “I think the system failed that child, the mother, the grandmother and the great grandmother.”
The District Attorney’s office is petitioning to try the teen as an adult, the major said.
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