Three teenagers are facing felony charges after being arrested for fighting and an armed robbery during the opening weekend of Six Flags Over Georgia on March 4.
The guardians of the 15-year-old and 16-year-old that were arrested claimed that their children are innocent and had no affiliations to the children that were fighting. Both parents sat they will hire lawyers to fight their charges. All three teenagers were charged with armed robbery.
According to reports, Cobb County Police in metro Atlanta were dispatched to a Wendy’s because a large group of teenagers were fighting and allegedly robbed another teen in the parking lot.
The fight started at Six Flags, but the teens were ejected from the amusement park. The group then made their way to the Wendy’s to wait on parents and rideshares to pick them up.
When police arrived they allegedly started grabbing teens and detained them to get control over the chaotic situation, according to reports. Michelle Favors and Reponza Marshall said that is when their two teenage boys got mixed up in the crowd and were arrested.
Six Flags over Georgia released a statement to he Atlanta Journal-Constitution to confirm the fighting.
“Unfortunately, several groups of young people decided to engage in inappropriate behavior in more than one area of the park,” the statement read. “Their actions disrupted the park experience for our guests and violated our park policies. …..We have absolutely no tolerance for inappropriate behavior. Safety for our guests, and our team members, is our foremost priority. Unruly behavior will not be tolerated.”
WSBTV News Atlanta reported that Favors’ 16-year-old son is being held at the juvenile detention center in Cobb County.
“I want my son home. My son is innocent,” Favors said. “He plays football for his school. He runs track. He’s the manager at his school for baseball.”
Marshall is the aunt of the other 15-year-old boy charged with the same crime. There have been no recent updates of the teenagers being released back into their parent’s custody.
“He’s a mentor with the city of Atlanta Camp Best Friends,” Marshall said.
Another 17-year-old teenager was arrested as well with Marshall and Favors children. Both parents said other than being locked up together for a week, the boys do not know each other and weren’t involved with the fight or robbery.
“A young lady called my phone and said my son was incarcerated with her son,” Favors said. “They don’t know each other. She said they didn’t let my son call his parents, so she called me for him.”
Marquitta Thomas, grandmother of another teenager at the scene, told local station WSB that her son was almost wrongfully detained as well.
“My son, he was like, ‘They were just grabbing kids. They were just grabbing them,’” Thomas said. “He was like, They grabbed me and I got away.”
Favors said that it looked as though her son was confused about what was happening in the cellphone video she saw. She also said he was arrested shortly after police arrived.
Cobb County Police Department released a statement that said the boys were not wrongfully arrested and charged. They stated that all three teenagers were charged based off eyewitness accounts and physical evidence. Police also say the reason the teenagers were charged as adults was because weapons were involved.
The 17-year-old boy that was arrested as the third suspect is the only one listed in arrest affidavits as actually having a gun, WSB reports.
