Two young men were killed and 35 other people were hurt early Sunday when gunfire broke out at a homecoming block party in Vienna, Georgia, a small city about 130 miles south of Atlanta. The injured ranged in age from 14 to 51.
As of Monday morning, nobody had been arrested, and investigators hadn’t named a suspect or said how many people fired. Dooly County’s sheriff had a direct message for whoever did: “Please turn yourself in, because we’re doing everything we can to find out who you are.”
What happened at the Vienna block party?
More than 1,000 people had packed the 900 block of Pine Street, near the Dooly County Recreation Department gym, for an unofficial party during Dooly County High School’s homecoming weekend. Deputies were posted at both ends of the street to handle traffic. At about 1:25 a.m., shots rang out.
Deputies ran toward the gunfire. They found two men dead in the 600 block of Pine Street, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Most of the 35 injured were shot. Others were hit by cars as the crowd ran. Ambulances fought crowded roads to get victims to hospitals in Crisp, Bleckley and Perry counties and to Atrium Health Navicent in Macon. Their conditions ranged from stable to critical.
The GBI identified the two men killed as Ja’Quavion Aderious Jackson, 21, of Cordele, and Macaleb Malik Jackson, 23, of Hawkinsville.
What are investigators saying?
Sheriff Craig Peavy called it a “senseless act of violence” and described a chaotic scene. Even after more officers arrived, they could still hear shots about a block away and couldn’t always tell where they were coming from.
We don’t know if it’s coming at us or someone else. You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and hope you don’t get hit by gunfire.
Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy
Peavy contrasted it with Friday night, when 22 officers worked an official homecoming event that went off without trouble. Saturday was “a different story,” he said, and he blamed large parties that pull in people from other places. Vienna Mayor Eddie Daniels said the city never issued a permit for the gathering, which happened about a block from his home. GBI Director Chris Hosey said six of the agency’s investigative units are working the case.
The school district’s superintendent, Sherrod Willaford, said the party wasn’t a school event. Schools opened Monday with extra safety measures, which he didn’t describe.
How can people help the investigation?
Investigators want tips and any video from the party. With more than 1,000 people on that street, plenty of phones were recording. Call the GBI office in Perry at 478-987-4545, or leave an anonymous tip at 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at gbi.georgia.gov, or through the See Something, Send Something app.
The BeezLoop Take
The first explanation people reach for after a shooting like this is that there weren’t enough police. That’s not what happened here. Deputies were already standing on Pine Street when the shooting started, and they still spent the next minutes ducking gunfire they couldn’t place.
What happened is the same thing that keeps happening at crowded weekend gatherings: somebody brought a gun into a packed street, and a dispute nobody’s explained yet became 37 casualties. A week ago, 12 teenagers were shot at a birthday party in a Macon park, about 50 miles up I-75. This weekend in Baltimore, a 12-year-old was killed at a youth football game when two men argued over parking.
The open question in Vienna is the simplest one. More than 1,000 people were there, and many of them had their phones out. Does anybody come forward?
Sources: Georgia Bureau of Investigation · 41NBC/WMGT · FOX 5 / AP via KTVU · WALB · 13WMAZ
