‘This can’t keep happening’: Mother calls for more security after son shot twice at same apartment complex

ATLANTA (Atlanta News First/Gray News) — An Atlanta mother is calling for increased security at her apartment complex after her 13-year-old son survived his second shooting there in a year.

“This can’t keep happening,” Shantavia Battle said.

Teen shot while sleeping

Battle said her son was shot four times while sleeping inside their apartment at Capitol Vanira on Hank Aaron Drive on Sunday.

Detectives said the apartment was targeted, with more than 100 shots fired into the unit.

Battle described scrambling to get her family to safety as the gunfire erupted.

“You could hear three different shots, so I told everybody to get on the floor and everybody come into the bathroom,” she said.

Battle’s son has since been released from the hospital and is expected to recover, but she said families at the southeast Atlanta complex need more protection.

“We don’t have security. We don’t have anybody. We don’t have anyone to help us, and it doesn’t make sense,” she said.

Second shooting in a year

The shooting comes about a year after the same boy, then 12, was injured in a drive-by shooting at the complex. Three other boys were also wounded in that shooting.

“I just heard the shots. ‘Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot!’ I hit the ground,” neighbor Robert Jackson said following last year’s shooting.

Atlanta police brought a mobile surveillance unit to the property after that incident. The unit remains in the parking lot, but Battle said it is not enough.

“My baby just went through this a year ago,” she said.

Police response pending

Atlanta News First has contacted Atlanta police to ask whether the department plans to increase patrols at the complex. A response was pending at the time of publication.

Police have not named a suspect or released a motive in Sunday’s shooting.