Atlanta police arrest 2 in cold case murder of 11-year-old boy

ATLANTA – Atlanta police arrested two suspects Friday in the fatal street shooting of an 11-year-old boy nearly 25 years ago, their investigation renewed last year after a call from the victim's mother.

Jeremiah Anderson was shot once in the back around 11 p.m. on Nov. 9, 1991.

Police said they arrested Raymond McDaniel, 46, and Roderick Clark, 42, on Friday and charged both men with murder in the boy's killing. One of the men was arrested at his home and the other at work, police said, adding both suspects still live in the Atlanta area.

The two were in custody Friday and it wasn't immediately clear if they have lawyers who could comment on the charges.

Anderson and some friends were standing outside where several men were gambling on dice games when a stolen vehicle pulled up and two men got out to rob the gamblers, homicide detective Vincent Velasquez told reporters. One suspect had an assault rifle and the other had a handgun, and both opened fire as Anderson and others scattered.

Anderson was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police began to scrutinize the case again last year after receiving a call from Anderson's mother, who lives in Mobile, Alabama, according to Velasquez. Police held a news conference in October to get the word out to the public that they needed help. They began offering a reward for tips in the case.

"Like any case, there's people who have information. It's just trying to reach the right people," Velasquez said.

They got tips that led them to believe they could resolve the case and went back and conducted a new round of interviews.

"Any case we have that's open, no matter how long it is, if we have information that comes in, we take it seriously," Velasquez said. "We look at it like a brand new case."

The two men's names were in the original case file, but so were other names, but the new information and interviews gave police enough to arrest them, Velasquez said Friday.

Velasquez declined to comment on the criminal history of either suspect, but said both knew police were looking into the case anew.

"I don't think it was any surprise to them to be arrested today to be honest," he said.