Latoya Tilson: Mom Saw Son In A Fight And Tried To Protect Him — And That’s When Things Went Wrong
From the archive: published Apr 8, 2015, 11 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Latoya Tilson did what any mom would do when she saw her son being threatened — she bolted out of her home to try to protect him. Tragically, in this case, she picked exactly the wrong way to do it and now her 15-year-old son Pierre is dead as a result.
The horrible incident took place in College Park, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, on Saturday night at about 8 p.m., when according to a police report, a fight broke out between Pierre and an unidentified 17-year-old boy — and possibly other youths as well.
The exact circumstances that led to the fight are unclear, based on conflicting reports out of the Atlanta area. While one report said that Pierre was attempting to protect his 13-year-old sister from the older teen, another alleged that the 15-year-old — who lived with his father and, along with his sister, was visiting his mom for Easter — may have owed an older boy money.
One witness, Stacy Marshall, told local Channel 11 in Atlanta that the Tilson kids were targeted by a group of older youths who started the fight.
What is known is that Latoya Tilson rushed out of her apartment building as soon as she saw her son in trouble out front.
“They were saying that the little boy, Pierre, owed somebody some money. The mom came out with a gun and she was like, ‘Leave my family alone. I don’t want my family to be hurt or beat up,'” said Marshall.
But the sight of the firearm did nothing to scare off the 17-year-old, who reportedly told Latoya, “You’re going to have to shoot me.” The teen then punched the mom in the face.
When she was struck, Latoya Tilson started shooting. Whether the gun went off accidentally or she began firing wildly on purpose is also unclear. The facts are that the 17-year-old was shot in the backside.
But one of Latoya’s shots struck her own son in the head.
A police officer who arrived on the scene immediately performed CPR on the fallen boy until paramedics arrived and rushed Pierre to a nearby hospital.
But at 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, the freshman who played drums in the Southwest DeKalb High School band, died of his wound at the hospital.
Latoya Tilson — who according to the boy’s father has been placed on a suicide watch — now faces a number of charges, including aggravated assault, reckless conduct, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and carrying a concealed weapon. But those charges could now be upgraded, possibly to homicide, now that her son Pierre has died.
