Cousin charged in high school football player's shooting death

ATLANTA — A 15-year-old boy died after being shot in the head in northwest Atlanta Monday night.

Police say the teen's cousin shot him inside their home on Adkins road around 7:15 p.m.

Loved ones identified the teen as Marquez Montgomery, a 10th-grader who played football at Mays High School, family said.

Police said the teen was not alert, conscious or breathing when they arrived at the scene. He was pronounced dead soon after.

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Montgomery's girlfriend, Ronbria Brown, was talking with him on FaceTime when the shooting happened.

"We were on FaceTime and I was asking him how my outfit looked and then the phone went face down and he wasn’t saying nothing," she said through tears. "His eyes were closed. Then I heard his daddy screaming, and his grandma screaming."

Family members say Montgomery lived in the home with his dad, grandparents and cousin.

"He said all day, 'I love you to death. I love you to death.' I said, 'Stop saying death,'" Brown said.

Atlanta police arrested Dontavious Montgomery and charged him with felony murder. They say he shot the victim with no provocation. Family members say it was all an accident.

Dontavious Montgomery was out on bond from a previous homicide at the time of the shooting. In January 2015, he was arrested and charged with the murder and aggravated assault in the stabbing death of Nicholas Roberts. He was released in October 2015 on $100,000 bond.

A crisis team was at Mays High School on Tuesday to help students and staff cope with the tragedy.

"Our deepest condolences go out to the family of Marquez Montgomery, who attended Benjamin E. Mays High School. Atlanta Public Schools sent a crisis team to Mays this morning to provide grief counseling for students and staff," an Atlanta Public Schools spokesperson said in a statement.

Cox Media Group