DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The principal for DeKalb Alternative School identified the middle school student who was killed in a shooting during an after-school fight.
Principal Terrence Harvey said in a letter to families Friday that Derron Woody, a former student at the school, had died. He was 13 years old.
“The entire DeKalb Alternative School family extends our heartfelt sympathy to Derron’s family, friends and relatives,” Harvey wrote.
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He said a crisis intervention team was at the school Friday to hold grief counseling sessions.
On Friday, Derron’s family shared pictures taken with his parents from 2023 at his fifth-grade graduation.
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Police were called out to the 4800 block of Glenwood Road around 4:30 p.m. Thursday. When officers got there, they found a boy with a gunshot wound.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Police said Thursday another middle schooler was taken into custody for questioning, but so far, no charges have been filed against anyone.
Detectives are working to determine what the fight was over and how it escalated into gunfire.
The father of a 13-year-old boy shot and killed during an afterschool fight says he believes his son was trying to run away when someone fired the deadly shots.
In an exclusive interview, Derrick Woody told Channel 2’s Michael Seiden that he was at work when he got a frantic call that his son Derron had been shot.
“They said ‘he was laying in front of door.’ I was like ‘what’s wrong with him?’ And they was like ‘he’s not getting up (and) he’s not moving. He’s bleeding from the mouth,‘” Woody said.
“Just hard to think about it right now you know,” he added. “I loved my son . He loved everybody. He wasn’t no bad boy.”
As of Friday afternoon, no one had been charged in the deadly shooting.
Derron was a student at the Dekalb Alternative School, but his family says when he wasn’t studying for tests, he was on his PS5.
In fact, they described him as the “ultimate gamer.”
The teen’s family is trying to raise money to bury their loved one. If you would like to help, you can donate to the GoFundMe here.
Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to call DeKalb police, or you can send an anonymous tip through the free Tip411 app or by texting “DKPD” to 847411, followed by the tip.
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