Two children killed in apartment fire
- 12/20/10
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
A mother and her boyfriend face charges after a Nov. 10 apartment fire claimed the lives of two of her children and badly burned a third.
Angel Johnson, 29, and her boyfriend Keith Pinkney, 24, both were charged with three counts of felony cruelty to children and one count of making a false statement.
The fire broke out inside a bedroom in the Marquis Chase Apartments on Ashley Place near Pine Lake late Friday night, said Mekka Parish, public information officer for the DeKalb Police Department.
The three children were left unattended inside the bedroom with a space heater to stay warm. The DeKalb County Fire Department is still investigating to determine the cause of the blaze, Parish said.
The children were left alone for a significant amount of time and there were barriers that interfered with the children’s ability to leave the room, Parish said. Police have not said what those barriers were.
Four-year-old Aliyah Quarles and her three-year-old brother Devyn Quarles died in the fire. A two-year-old male remains in critical condition in the burn unit of Grady Hospital, Parish said.
In hearings Saturday, Johnson’s bail was set at $500,000 and Pinkney’s bail was set at $410,000.
The boyfriend left (with his child) to go to the supermarket. While he was gone, the mother left her children alone in the apartment to go to Burger King. When she got back, she tried to resuscitate the children with a neighbor (who called 911). Police & ambulance arrived & she was arrested. When the boyfriend returned (with his child), he was arrested on the spot. Why he was arrested is beyond me, but I hope this all comes to the light during the trial.