2 hardened criminals are in custody in connection with the abduction and murder of a 13-year-old Detroit boy.
Deontae Mitchell’s body was found in a field on Detroit’s eastside on Thursday. He was abducted at gunpoint Tuesday night outside a grocery store.
Deontae and a cousin rode their bikes to the grocery store on the city’s eastside to buy chips and drinks, according to published reports.
Deontae’s cousin told police the teen had picked up money dropped by 45-year-old Gregory Walker, who was urinating against an exterior wall of the grocery store.
Surveillance video footage from the grocery store shows Walker, holding a nickel-plated revolver, grabbing Deontae by the arm and shove him into the rear passenger side of a black Chevy Impala.
The car was later found abandoned near I-94 on the eastside.
After the video was aired repeatedly on the news, Walker was arrested without incident early Thursday in Toledo, Ohio. A female acquaintance who was with him was also taken into custody.
Hours later, police arrested Ernest Coleman as a suspect in the boy’s death.
A 3rd suspect, Roy Portis, 51, remains on the loose. He is described as a black male, 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds.
“This should be a message to all who perpetrate crimes against children: we’re going to continue in a very relentless way to find you and bring you into custody,” police chief James Craig said. “We’re talking about a defenseless child. An adult male with a gun. Once again, another coward preying on children that needs to stop.”
“Deontae was different,” said Ernest McFadden, the father of Deontae’s older brothers. “He was joyful. He was going to be something different than all the other kids,” McFadden told The Detroit News.
“He got caught up at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Glen Ellington, Deontae’s grandfather. “If the guy held a gun to his head, I know he was scared. He wasn’t no violent-type person.”
McFadden stressed that Deontae was a good kid, “the type of kid that would help an old lady cross the street, not snatch her purse.”
“He believed in God. He believed in something better than everything going on in the world today,” McFadden said. “He believed in people, too. I guess that’s where he made his mistake.”
