Second Child Hit By Stray Bullet In Same Complex

ATLANTA -- It wasn't lightning that struck twice at a southwest Atlanta apartment complex. It was stray bullets.

For the second time in 14 months, an innocent child was hit by a bullet that tore through an apartment. Both shootings happened in the Central Methodist Garden apartments on Fairburn Road.

Nine-year-old Annaijh Rolax was killed last July by a bullet that came from a gun fight outside her apartment. Wednesday night, a young teenager was hit in the leg by a bullet that came from two apartments above him. This time, it was 14-year-old Keno Smith. He was sitting on a couch in the living room of his best friend's apartment.

His friend, Michael Howard, says Smith was texting on his cell phone when a bullet ripped through the ceiling, grazed by his head and hit him in the leg.

"I was in the kitchen when it happened but he was sitting right there (on the couch) when he got shot," Howard said.

Howard said he is having a hard time with what could have happened.

"He could've died or it could have been me," Howard said.

Keno Smith's mother, Sonya Brewer, told 11Alive News outside Grady Hospital that her son is in critical condition after the bullet hit an artery. She says doctors told her he should be okay.

A friend, Charissa Williams, was with Sonya Brewer at the hospital. Williams says she ran into the apartment after Keno Smith was shot and helped put pressure on his leg to stem the bleeding.

"He's just an all around good kid," Williams said. "He's not into trouble, he focuses on school and what he's supposed to be doing right now in life."

Those were the same things family and friends said about 9-year-old Annaijh Rolax after she was killed by a stray bullet in the same apartment complex in July 2007. There was a gunfight outside her apartment. A bullet hit her in the head while she was doing homework on the computer.

Atlanta police say the bullet that hit Keno Smith came from two floors above his friend's apartment. Police say when they went to that apartment, the shooter was gone. Charissa Williams made a plea for the shooter to turn himself in.

"I know it was an accident but it still doesn't mean that they shouldn't come forward and tell what really happened so that Keno can have peace," she said.

Atlanta police say they don't believe Keno Smith was a target of the shooter and they don't know if it was an accident.

Atlanta police Lieutenant Neil Klotzer said, "We don't know if that person was shooting at someone else."

In the Annaijh Rolax case, two suspects were charged with her murder. Police said 27-year-old Jason Ardis and 20-year-old Charlie West were shooting at a man they were trying to rob and a bullet went through a window in Rolax's apartment.