On Thursday night, a 12-year-old boy without a shirt and with a baby-like face was led out of a police station in Florida, handcuffed and on his way to jail after being charged with a triple murder.
Christopher Atkins and Robert Robinson, aged 12 and 17 respectively, were arrested by the Marion County Sheriff for the deaths of three minors whose bodies were found earlier in the week.
Police are still looking for a third suspect, Tahj Brewton, 16, offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest.
In the video of Atkins’s arrest, he appears emotionless as he is flanked by two deputies walking him to a police car. Robinson, who was arrested after a fight at school, has a gray shirt with his hands cuffed in front of him. He mumbled something to the officer who was escorting him away, but deliberately avoided looking at the camera.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said that the three suspects were part of a burglary gang with the three dead teenagers, sparking fear of a serial killer. At a press conference on Friday, he said, “There’s no honor among thieves. At some point, these three individuals turned on our three victims and murdered them.”
The first victim, a 16-year-old softball player Layla Silvernail, was found dead near the road on March 30. The next day, an unidentified 17-year-old boy wearing a ski mask and gloves was found in a ditch a half-mile away. Camille Quarles, 16, was discovered in the trunk of Silvernail’s car that was found in a pond about 9 miles from where she was initially located.
According to the police documents, one of the victims was planning to buy a gun from the suspects prior to the murders. Woods said that a witness heard the fatal gunshots and they were likely killed at the same time.
The prosecutors are looking into the possibility of trying the youths as adults due to the seriousness of the crime.
Quarles was being raised by her aunt and had two siblings. A GoFundMe page for her said she was very talented at softball, volleyball and basketball, and also very good at braiding hair.
Woods also mentioned that the gun used in the killings was stolen from a car burglary. He thanked all the law enforcement partners, the FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Ocala Police Department, his deputies and detectives, forensics professionals, and citizens who all provided tips throughout the investigation.