BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- At a late afternoon news conference, police say they have arrested two teenagers in the shooting death of a baby shot while in a stroller.
The teens are 14 and 17-years-old. They are charged with murder. The 17-year-old, under Georgia law, is considered an adult. Search warrants are being executed in three locations.
WTLV reports the mother and her toddler were on a morning walk Thursday, when they were approached by two suspects and shot, Brunswick Police Chief Tobe C. Green said.
Rhodes said the toddler was shot with a handgun, which has not been recovered, according to CNN. The toddler's mother, Sherry West told the AP that the older boy fired four shots, the first into the ground. One bullet grazed her left ear and another hit her left leg above the knee.
West told the AP that before the shootings, the gunman asked "Do you want me to kill your baby?"
Several people in the neighborhood called 911 after they heard the gunshots fired, but Rhodes said investigators believed that the mother was the only witness to what happened. Rhodes described the neighborhood as safe.
Brunswick police are checking the attendance records of area schools to see who was missing or absent from class Thursday, WTLV reported. The town is about 80 miles south of Savannah.
The Brunswick Police Department is "aggressively and actively searching for the suspects," Rhodes told WTLV.
West described the incident in a tearful interview with WAWS-TV of Jacksonville. "He said 'I'm going to kill you if you don't give me money,' and I said, 'I swear I don't have any,'" she said.
West said she tried to protect her baby, Antonio Santiago, but shots rang out. "I put my arms over my baby, and he shoves me, and then he shot my baby right in the head," she told WAWS-TV.
Rhodes told WJXT that the mother suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
"She is cooperating as fully as she can possibly cooperate, providing the best information that she has, given what she has gone through" Brunswick Mayor Bryan Thompson told WJXT. "She is, for right now, the only eyewitness we have."
Brunswick police, who went door-to-door searching for the suspects Thursday, are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Rhodes said they have found no motive in the shootings.
The mother lives in a rented house in the Brunswick's Old Town historic district. Beverly Anderson's husband owns the property, and she told AP that West has lived there for six or seven years. Anderson said she spoke with her yesterday to extend her condolences and see if there was anything she could do for her.
"We're just very sorry about what happened and very aghast that something could happen in our little neighborhood," Anderson told AP. "It's a quiet, safe little neighborhood."
Anderson said people walk up and down the street, children walk to school and families are frequently outdoors. "It's scared everybody," she said. "They don't feel so safe outside."
She said West stayed home to care for her baby, who was often spotted in his mother's arms.
"The house has a front porch with a swing, and we'd see him out on the swing with his mother," Anderson said. "He was a happy, cheerful baby."
It's not the mother's first loss of a child to violence. West said her 18-year-old son, Shaun Glassey, was killed in New Jersey in 2008.
Katharine Lackey, USA TODAY
Contributing: The Associated Press
Expanded coverage from our Gannett sister station, First Coast News: http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/304784/483/Police-check-attendance-records-in-search-for-baby-killers
RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press
Gannett