Family of murdered Augusta teen still seeking answers two months after his death
Za'ire Person, who was shot and killed April 6 in Augusta, would have turned 16 years old this week. Instead of celebrating at a birthday party, his family on Wednesday stood at his grave site and released balloons.
While some other 16-year-olds receive a car for the milestone occasion, the family said his gift was a billboard on Peach Orchard Road seeking information about his unsolved murder.
The 15-year-old star athlete and straight-A student at Butler High School was attending a "splat" party, which is a party where children play with water guns, when gunfire rang out. Person's grandmother, Tanya Borders, said teens from another neighborhood decided to go to the party and brought real guns.
The family said 102 bullets were found at the scene.
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However, no arrests have been made.
The Richmond County Sheriff's Office sent out a press release Thursday seeking information about the shooting.
"[The sheriff's office] says, 'We're doing our job, let us do our job,'" Borders said. "They say that while my grandbaby is laying in some dirt."
Borders said the family heard investigators questioned a few individuals, received some information from callers and even received videos from the shooting, but the case is still under investigation.
She said the family has not heard from Sheriff Richard Roundtree or the Augusta District Attorney's Office.
"We understand that [the sheriff's office] is short-staffed, but we kind of feel like Zaire wasn't getting enough attention. He was just swept to the side," she said. "... If Richmond County [Sheriff's Office] does not have enough of a force, GBI can come in. They do that when a county does not have enough support. Call somebody else in because it's happening to too many kids. It's happening to too many families."
While the family remains patient, she said calls from mothers of other shooting victims, whose cases have gone cold, remind her to keep pushing for justice.
"A mother contacted me a few days ago. Her son was killed back in 2015," Borders said. "She said after a few months, [investigators] never called her again. There were witnesses right there when her son got shot and she said they just acted like it didn't even happen. I asked, 'You just let it go?' And she said, 'What am I supposed to do?' This family here, we're not letting anything go. I'm not going to give up. It's not going to be like that for my family."
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: No arrests in April murder of 15-year-old Augusta boy
