“I’m always going to wonder what his first word would be,” said heartbroken mom Sherry West a day after the senseless shooting in Brunswick, Ga.
Her 13-month-old boy, Antonio Santiago, was murdered Thursday seconds after two teenage killers shot and wounded the terrified mom during a botched robbery.
When West saw the jail mug shot of 17-year-old De’Marquis Elkins, she identified him as the gunman.
“That’s definitely him,” she told law enforcement. “He killed my baby, and he shot me too.”
Police nabbed Elkins in Brunswick and charged him as an adult with first-degree murder. His alleged accomplice, 14, who has not been identified because he is a minor, was also arrested.
“We’re trying to determine which one actually was the shooter,” police spokesman Todd Rhodes said Saturday.
The motive of the “horrendous act” was still under investigation, police said, and the weapon had not been found.
Elkins’ older sister insisted her family knows that her brother was not involved in the shooting.
“My brother wasn’t anywhere near that area as far as we know — not the scene or the shooting,” she said Saturday. “He couldn’t do that to a little baby.”
When police found Elkins, they pointed a Taser at him and told him to get on the ground.
“He said, ‘What are you getting me for? Can you tell me what I did?’ ” his sister recalled.
West was shot in the left leg above her knee, and another bullet grazed her left ear. She said the gunman shot her son in the face.
“My baby will never be back again,” West sobbed as she packed bags with baby clothing and diapers to donate to charity. “He took an innocent life. I want his life, too.”
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