FORT VALLEY, Ga. — The Fort Valley Police Department is piecing together information after a deadly shooting. The department said they responded to a call about a fight around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Police Chief DJ Flores said they took a suspect into custody today.
Peach County Coroner Kerry Rooks said when police arrived at the call early Saturday morning, they found 37-year-old Naun Mendez Melendez shot in the chest. It happened on the 400 block of Boulevard Street in Fort Valley.
A neighbor said it started as a fight with other neighbors. Police Chief DJ Flores said people need to resolve issues without turning to violence.
"This is our second murder of the year, which is a 50% decrease from last year,” he said. “Last year, we had four murders, and we hope that it doesn't go any higher than what unfortunately took place this past weekend."
Police said when they arrived, they tried to resuscitate Melendez but it was too late. Flores said they constantly work to make sure people feel safe.
"Definitely we're going to be in that area at least for the next couple of weeks and as much as we can to let them and reassure them that they're going to be safe,” he said.
Flores said they are classifying the case as a murder. He wants people to know that based on their preliminary investigation, they don't believe it’s gang related.
“However, we don't know if it's domestic related, if it's drug related, we just don't know,” Flores said. “It might be simply just two people arguing and it escalated to that level. And that's very unfortunate. We're still trying to develop information to see what led to that level of violence.”
Flores said people should call the criminal investigations unit at 478-825-3383 if they have any information.
“We want to get as much as we can and continue to receive information and we will decipher from there whether that information is accurate based on the investigation where it leads to,” he said. “So yes, we continue to reach out to people in the community to please give us information and even that information, if you want to remain anonymous, that's fine.”
So far they are not releasing any information on the person they took into custody.