Petty crime, deadly penalty for 13-year-old Detroit boy

DETROIT — It was a crime of opportunity and a petty one at that. Seventy dollars dropped on the ground by a man urinating against a building and a fast moving 13-year-old kid who scooped up the money and pedaled away on his bicycle.

The boy didn’t get very far before the man, holding a silver handgun, caught up to him, dragged him by his arm to a black Chevrolet Impala and pushed him into the back seat.

That was the last time Deontae Mitchell was seen alive — his chilling abduction caught on surveillance video in the parking lot of a party store.

On Thursday morning, a day and half after his abduction, Deontae's body was found in a field on Detroit’s east side, just a few miles from where he disappeared. An autopsy was scheduled Friday to determine how the boy died.

The man suspected of killing and abducting him, Gregory Walker, 45, had been arrested earlier near Toledo, Ohio, along with a woman, Detroit police said.

Walker, who has a lengthy criminal record, was already wanted for violating his probation on a stolen property offense and for allegedly assaulting and robbing a woman in April, court records show.

A second suspect was arrested later Thursday, and a third man was still being sought. Police wouldn't say what their connection is to the case.

Deontae's grandmother, Vernice Ellington, said she helped raise the boy and never imagined she’d have to endure him being kidnapped and killed over a few dollars.

“We are in a troubled world,” she said.

The boy's grandparents described him as a gentle child who did well in school and often helped with work and chores around their house.

“He wasn’t the violent type,” Vernice Ellington said. “He was timid and really sweet. He didn’t deserve this.”

His grandfather, Glen Ellington, said Deontae was well liked by the Ellingtons' neighbors on the city’s west side.

“He wasn’t the type to be in the streets running around,” said his grandfather. “He just got caught at the store at the wrong time.”

One of the other suspects, 30-year-old Ernest Coleman, was taken into custody at his Detroit home Thursday afternoon, police said. A third man, 51-year-old Roy Portis, was still at large at the time.

Police said Deontae was abducted around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday while riding his bicycle with a cousin near Nino's Market on Detroit's east side. The cousin told police that Deontae had picked up money dropped by a man who was urinating against a wall.

At a Thursday morning news conference at police headquarters, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said it's unclear whether the boy knew his attacker, and he called the man "yet another coward preying on children."

Wayne County Circuit Court records show that Walker was already wanted by authorities.

Walker, who had been sentenced to two years of probation for receiving and concealing stolen property in a case from 2013, stopped reporting to his probation officer in February 2015, a spokesman with the Michigan Department of Corrections said. The next month, records show, a warrant was issued for Walker’s arrest.

Then in April, with Walker still at large, a woman contacted Detroit police to report that he had punched her in the face and stolen her purse, court records show.

“He left the location in a black Chevy Impala,” according to a court document, which lists his home as a homeless shelter.

Walker’s criminal history dates back to the 1990s and includes charges of stealing property and possessing drugs, records show.

Contributing: Daniel Bethencourt, Detroit Free Press. Follow Matt Helms, Gina Damron and Robert Allen on Twitter: @MattHelms, @ginadamron and @rallenMI