HANCOCK COUNTY, Ga. — Neighbors on Shoals Road in Sparta are surprised to hear a teen was shot by a Hancock County deputy just a couple of doors down from them.
13WMAZ’s Jessica Cha spoke with one neighbor who expressed concern about gunfire near where she lives.
17-year-old Montavious Lewis lives on Shoals Road, and neighbors say they're shocked that this happened and they're concerned.
"It could've been my son,” says Yolanda McCrary.
She lives a couple of doors down from where the GBI reports a deputy shot Lewis, and runs a daycare there. She says she got several calls from friends asking if she had heard the news.
"It was surprising. I got calls all last night and they was telling me that the young fellow up the road got shot,” she explains.
According to the GBI, deputies responded to a stolen vehicle. When they got there, they met Montavious Lewis. They report that Lewis began to fight the deputy who fired his service weapon, hitting Lewis.
McCrary says her neighbors saw some of it happen.
"The neighbors say that the car turned around in their yard, and then went up flying,” she says. “Then five minutes later, said they heard a gunshot.”
McCrary says shootings like that don't happen often here. Now, she's worried for her and her kids' safety.
"It was so close. With me having the daycare, I couldn't go to sleep.”.
She says she knows Lewis and says her 16-year old son is friends with him, and he's been to her house before.
"He was always quiet, he didn't talk much. I was wondering if he's OK. I haven't heard anything,” McCrary says.
The GBI reports that Lewis was taken to a hospital in Athens, Georgia where he's in stable condition.
I spoke to a family member of Lewis who called him a decent person and he said Lewis was supposed to go to a job interview the next day.
We made numerous attempts to reach the Hancock County Sheriff's Office for comment and were unable to reach them.
The GBI says they're conducting their own independent investigation on the situation. This marks the 81st officer-involved shooting they've been asked to investigate this year.