A 71-year-old convicted felon who was babysitting a toddler in Atlanta faces felony murder charges after the 3-year-old boy was fatally shot in the early hours of Easter Sunday, the Atlanta Police Department said Monday.
Barbara Edwards was taken into custody on charges of felony murder, second-degree cruelty to children, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, police reported. A second suspect, 35-year-old Jermaine Hardeman, remained at large as of Wednesday evening.
The child, identified by a GoFundMe account as Armani Deshawn Lyons, would have turned four years old on May 3. Instead, his family is raising money for funeral arrangements.
Officers responded to a shooting on April 5 shortly after 12:30 a.m. The Atlanta Police Department posted on Facebook describing what they found at the scene:
"Upon arriving on the scene, officers located a 3-year-old who had sustained an apparent gunshot wound. The child was transported to the hospital by ambulance where medical personnel pronounced the child deceased."
Police identified Edwards as the child's babysitter. Body camera footage released by the department shows Edwards emerging from an apartment as officers stood outside the door. In the video, Edwards says "Yes, sir" before asking, "You're going to handcuff me?"
The Atlanta Police Department said its investigation remains ongoing. Officers have not publicly detailed what evidence led to the charges against Edwards or what specific role, if any, Hardeman allegedly played in the shooting. Whether the child was shot inside or outside the apartment has not been disclosed.
Jail records from the Fulton County Sheriff's Office paint a grim picture of the woman entrusted with a toddler's care. Edwards carries a criminal history dating back to 2000, a record that includes battery, robbery, possession of cocaine, and shoplifting, among other offenses.
That history is what makes the firearms possession charge especially significant. As a convicted felon, Edwards was already barred by law from possessing a gun. Yet police charged her with exactly that, on top of felony murder and cruelty to a child.
The question that lingers over the entire case is a familiar one: how did a person with a 25-year criminal record end up as the sole caretaker of a 3-year-old boy in the middle of the night? It doesn't explain the relationship between Edwards, Hardeman, and the child's family beyond the babysitter designation.
Police said they are still searching for Jermaine Hardeman, 35, in connection with the toddler's death. Authorities have not publicly described his alleged involvement or his relationship to either Edwards or the child. As of Wednesday evening, he had not been apprehended.
The case joins a disturbing pattern of violent crimes claiming the lives of young children across the country. In New York, the shooting death of an infant drew sharp criticism when city leaders framed the tragedy as a gun problem rather than a crime problem, a deflection that dodges the harder questions about who commits these acts and why they were free to do so.
The details in Atlanta raise the same uncomfortable reality. Edwards was not an unknown quantity. Her record was documented. Her felony convictions were a matter of public record maintained by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. None of that prevented her from being alone with a small child and, police allege, in possession of a firearm she was legally prohibited from having.
A GoFundMe page set up for the family identified the boy as Armani Deshawn Lyons and described the fundraising effort as covering funeral arrangements. The page noted he would have been turning four on May 3.
That detail, a birthday less than a month away, is the kind of fact that needs no editorial commentary. It speaks for itself.
Violent crimes against children have continued to make headlines nationwide. In Omaha, officers fatally shot a woman who attacked a 3-year-old with a knife in a parking lot. In Los Angeles, a 12-year-old was arrested on murder suspicion after a classmate died at school. Each case is distinct, but together they reflect a country where the most vulnerable citizens keep paying the price for systems that fail to protect them.
The Atlanta Police Department has left several critical questions open. Investigators have not said what led them to Edwards or what triggered the shooting. They have not disclosed the precise location beyond an apartment in the Atlanta area. They have not explained Hardeman's alleged connection to the events of that night.
Meanwhile, other violent crime investigations continue around the country. In Wilmington, police are searching for a person of interest in the fatal stabbing of a U.S. Marine. In each of these cases, the public waits for answers while families bury their dead.
Edwards now sits in a Fulton County jail. The charges against her, felony murder, cruelty to a child, illegal firearm possession, carry the weight of a system that caught up to her only after a 3-year-old was dead. Hardeman remains free.
The investigation, police said, is ongoing.
A convicted felon with a record going back a quarter century was babysitting a toddler at midnight on Easter. Accountability after the fact is better than none at all, but it's cold comfort for a boy who never got to turn four.
