17-year-old arrested for vehicle theft, abduction of 1-year-old Blaise Barnett in November

By JOYCE LUPIANI, SAVANNAH LOUIE

Click here for updates on this story

    DEKALB COUNTY (WGCL) — Clarkston Police have arrested 17-year-old Dieu Doumdje for the Nov. 10 vehicle theft and abduction of a 1-year-old boy.

Doumdje was arrested Jan. 13 by DeKalb County School Police at Freedom Middle School in Stone Mountain and taken to the DeKalb County Jail.

According to the DeKalb County School District, Freedom Middle School administrators approached Doumdje, who was not authorized to be on the campus. School district police arrested Doumdje after discovering he had an active felony warrant from DeKalb County Police.

Doumdje is a student at Towers High School. He was arrested on a charge of theft by taking and could face additional charges.

Clarkston Police say they are still actively investigating the case and conducting interviews to determine if any other people were involved. They used GBI forensics inside the stolen vehicle to connect Doumdje to the crime.

“We were able to obtain a fingerprint from a piece of mail that was unrelated to anyone associated with the family,” said Clarkston Police Sergeant Dustin Bulcher.

An Amber Alert was issued after the 1-year-old boy named Blaise Barnett and the vehicle he was inside of were taken from a driveway outside of his home.

The boy’s family had parked in front of their home around 1 a.m. and were taking another child and items into the home when the vehicle was stolen. His mother, Deonna Bray, said the arrest brings a sense of justice.

“We have justice. This person didn’t get away with doing this. It’s the fact of clearing our names – like now to the world, it wasn’t us,” said Bray.

Bray’s 2002 Ford Explorer was found just outside the city limits of Clarkston the same afternoon it was stolen, but Blaise Barnett was not inside. The next day, a woman who lives on Rogers Street in Clarkston contacted police and said she found a young child in her unlocked vehicle in her driveway.

Police confirmed the child was Blaise Barnett and he was reunited with his family.

Barnett was missing more than 36 hours before he was located.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.