There were two activities Ja’Nylen Amir Greggs loved more than anything. Eating and playing basketball.
Carrying a can of Sprite in one hand and a piece of chicken in the other, the 12-year-old made the short walk from his southwest Atlanta apartment to the basketball court on a recent evening. A neighbor joked she wanted a bite of that chicken, but Nylen wasn’t sharing.
Moments later shortly after 7 p.m., neighbors heard gunshots. The happy boy with chubby cheeks had been struck while playing outside. Nylen, as he was called, was badly injured, but he tried to run home, falling down on the way.
“He ran to his mama,” Tiawana Taylor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Taylor went to the boy’s apartment to comfort his mother. Nylen had lost a lot of blood, Taylor said. Despite lifesaving efforts, the boy known in the neighborhood for being respectful and polite died from his injuries.
According to Atlanta police Chief Darin Schierbaum, the June 12 shooting began as a conflict between two groups at the apartment complex.
Credit: Family photo
Credit: Family photo
“One group returned to a blue car, and once they entered that car and started to drive down the street, they opened fire on the group they had been in an argument with just moments before,” Schierbaum said that night. “In that exchange of gunfire, the 12-year-old was shot.”
The following day, a Gwinnett County teenager was arrested, according to police. Michael Darnell Hollis, 19, of Snellville was charged with murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, police said.
An attorney for Hollis, Sarah Flack, has said he is innocent.
“We look forward to proving that Michael is 100% innocent of the charges in this case in a court of law,” Flack said. “We will ensure that justice is pursued with the fairness, swiftness and integrity our legal system demands and Ja’Nylen’s family deserves.”
Meanwhile, additional arrests are expected, according to police.
The 12-year-old is Atlanta’s youngest homicide victim of the year so far, according to police, though violent crime is down in the city. Schierbaum said both the city and the community lost a child because of senseless gun violence.
Nylen had just finished the 6th grade at Jean Childs Young Middle School, neighbors said.
A week after the shooting, the Hidden Pines complex on Cushman Circle was quiet. On a hot, summer afternoon, there weren’t kids playing outside. And no one was playing basketball.
The two hoops had been pulled down by neighbors saddened by Nylen’s death. Instead of basketball goals, there were memorials to the boy that included balloons, teddy bears and some of his favorite snacks.
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Neighbors say there has been violence in the area in the past. In May, a man survived a shooting, according to police. And in September 2023, 49-year-old Darryl Chambers died after being shot in the complex.
But past incidents hadn’t involved a child, Taylor said. She grew up in the area and said she doesn’t understand the gun violence.
“When I was young, it wasn’t like this,” she said. “People would just fight.”
Located just inside I-285 near the intersection of Boulder Park and Martin Luther King Jr. drives, the Hidden Pines complex has two-story buildings with two bedroom, one bathroom apartments. Some buildings appear to have been more recently renovated.
Taylor said she and other neighbors wanted the complex shut down even before the boy was killed. A police camera placed on a tall pole nearby should have been there before the shooting, she said.
Julianna Dykes, who grew up in Arkansas, said she was grazed by a bullet as a young adult. Like Nylen, she had also been an innocent bystander, she said. Dykes said this time, it could have been her 13-year-old daughter killed.
“Gun violence has to stop,” Dykes said. “It really has to go.”
Just days before Nylen was killed, neighbors had held a block party for his 12th birthday.
“We sang ‘Happy birthday’ the loudest way we could ever sing,” Dykes said. “I’ve never seen nobody sing ‘Happy birthday’ as loud as we did.”
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com
Rachel Henderson said Nylen called her “auntie” and loved when she made fried chicken. He was a good kid, and she often saw him playing basketball
“Everybody’s devastated,” she said. “Everybody loved Nylen. Everybody’s hurting in the neighborhood right now.”
The boy’s mother created a GoFundMe page created to assist with funeral costs. An only child, Nylen was “the center of her world” and had a promising life ahead of him, the page states.
Beyond his mother, his neighbors said they are also heartbroken over Nylen’s death. A young life was senselessly taken, they said.
“He was very loved,” Taylor said. “It’s messed up the whole neighborhood. I’ll never forget him ever. He will forever be in my heart. Forever.”
Anyone with information on Ja’Nylen’s case is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477, text information to 274637 or visit the Crime Stoppers website.
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