OH No She Didn't

Our Condolences Go Out to Juvenile and The Deleston Family 

A Gwinnett County teenager was arrested early Friday and charged with the Thursday night shooting deaths of his two young sisters and his mother, a Gwinnett sheriff's deputy.

Anthony Tyrone Terrell, 17, was being held Friday in the DeKalb County Jail, Gwinnett police Cpl. Illana Spellman said. He was charged with three counts of murder and three counts of aggravated assault.

The shootings occurred about 8 p.m. Thursday at the family's home at 415 Madison Chase Drive, in the Lawrenceville area.

Terrell's mother, 39-year-old Joy Deleston, was a 7-1/2 year veteran of the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office. She previously worked for the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office in South Georgia. Her two daughters, Jelani and Micaiah, were ages 4 and 11, according to Gwinnett County police spokesman David Schiralli. All three were dead of gunshot wounds.

The deputy's 17-year-old son, who lived there, arrived while police were at the house.

"Investigators interviewed Mr. Terrell and as a result of the interview,there was enough probable cause to charge him with the murder of his mother and two sisters," Spellman said. Police say the teenager implicated himself in the slayings and even told investigators where he disposed of the gun. They still don't know why he did it.

"We do not have a motive at this time," said Officer David Schiralli, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department.

"Anger," Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway said when reached by phone and asked his reaction to the crime. "I've got a deputy dead and two children. We just want to find out who did it and why."

Deleston worked in the sex crimes unit of the sheriff's office and interacted with registered sex offenders, maintaining a database of their addresses in Gwinnett, according to Schiralli.

At the scene of the 8 p.m. shooting, Schiralli said police responded to a call from a neighbor of shots fired in the Madison Chase subdivision near Simonton Road. Schiralli said police found a bullet hole in a house next door, then went to the home, where they found the deputy and her 11-year-old dead inside the front door. The officers then went upstairs and found the 4-year-old.

Jelani, 4, was the daughter of rap star Juvenile, according to child-support records in Gwinnett County. The rapper, whose real name is Terius Gray, could not be reached for comment on Friday.