Daveon Lamontay Coates, 15, and Tatiyana Monasia Coates, 11
The funeral service for two teens gunned down in gang warfare at an Atlanta suburb last Saturday will be held in Chattanooga.
Brother and sister Daveon Lamontay Coates, 15, and Tatiyana Monasia Coates, 11, lived in Chattanooga before moving to Jonesboro, Ga., where they were shot to death.
Police said the intended target of the shooting was actually back in Chattanooga at the time. He has been placed in protective custody.
Daveon Coates was on the East Ridge High School ROTC Team while living in Chattanooga. He was currently a 10th grader at Mundy’s Mill High School.
Tatiyana Coates was a sixth grader at Pointe South Middle School.
They were preceded in death by their grandfather, Carl Terrell and grandmother, Mary Brown.
Survivors include their father, Carlton Coates; mother, Teneika Brown; grandparents, Joe and Barbara Brown, Mary Terrell; great-grandparents, Evelyn Heard and Loudora Bonds; brothers, Brandon Mitchell, Taemond Coates, Montavis Coates, and Kemon Adair; sisters, Demarjanek Coates, Mykendra Coates, and Melkayla Coates; uncles, Joe Jones, Myron Baker, Jermaine Baker, and Jermaine Coates; aunts, Carleetha Jones, Brandy Brown, Lashawnya Ward, Brenda Baker, Lisa Williams, and Mary Wordlaw, all of Chattanooga.
Visitation is Tuesday from 7-8 p.m. at Taylor Funeral Home. The funeral service will be Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the funeral home chapel with Brother John R. Taylor, Sr. as the eulogist.
Burial will be in Highland Memorial Gardens.
The Clayton County Police Department held a press conference on Tuesday on the Libby Lane home invasion that resulted in the murders.
Chief Michael Register said the Clayton County Police Department has been working closely with the Chattanooga Police Department and the FBI Safe Streets Division in an attempt to solve the case.
He said, "We believe that the individuals responsible for the crime are involved in a Metro-Atlanta gang. The mother of Tatiyana and Daveon Coates allowed one of her friends and her five children to recently move into her home. A 15-year-old who was one of the children that recently came to live at the address got involved in some gang activity while he was in Georgia. We believe that while the 15-year-old was here, he committed an act against a local gang which caused them to retaliate in a vicious manner.
"We have information that members of the gang possibly went to the home on Libby Lane the day before the home invasion occurred in search of the 15-year-old. We pulled together a number of resources to investigate this crime and the information that we have obtained has led us to Chattanooga.
"Based on information we uncovered, we believed that the 15-year-old that we were seeking was in Chattanooga. Sometime around 4 p.m., on Sunday, we received information that there was a report of a gang-related shooting that occurred in Chattanooga.
"It appears that one of the local gangs that we believe to have been involved in the murders of Tatiyana and Daveon Coates, traveled to Chattanooga and were involved in that shooting there as well.
"We had been looking diligently for the 15-year-old who fled the area and have recently located him in Tennessee and we have him in custody. We feel that the 15-year-old is a critical element in the case and we also want to ensure his safety. Until we find those who are responsible for the crime, we will continue to dedicate our resources to this case."