DODGE COUNTY, Ga. — Friends of 21-year-old Za’Quon Brown say they're shocked and saddened by his death. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations says Brown was driving on Neese Street in Eastman when someone shot him in the chest and he crashed into a tree.
13WMAZ’s Jessica Cha visited the neighborhood to see what folks had to say.
"We heard gunshots. and then he was shot and he hit the tree,” says Sierra White.
White has lived on Neese Street for the past seven years. She says Brown's car hit the tree in front of her house, and her daughters saw it happen.
"Once they looked out the window and seen his car in the yard, they was scared,” White explains.
The GBI says Brown is from Oglethorpe, but White says he lived in Eastman most of the time with his stepmother, working at Walmart. She says he visited his mother in Warner Robins every other week.
White says she's known Brown for four years and he leaves behind a girlfriend, an infant son, and that he was a good person.
"He was really respectful. He'd come sit on the porch and come talk to me. When he is over here, he talks about his baby-- his son. He loved his son. Yeah, he wasn't a problem child– he didn't bother anybody,” she says.
White says Brown usually kept to himself. She says his death is hurtful because he was so young.
"He's 22 and he was getting to the money -- put it like that. He had a job and he was doing what he needed to do, and I don't think they liked that,” she explains.
Demars Durham has lived in the neighborhood his whole life.
"We heard about it, we came down here to see if it's true, and you see 20 to 30 officers surrounding the place,” he says.
Durham says that violence like that rarely happens in their community because it’s such a small town.
"It caught everybody by surprise. You know, he was just a kid. He was a nice kid. It was just the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess.”.
White says that Brown's mother has posted signs asking for justice for her son and is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with more information.
The GBI say they're investigating and if you have information, you can contact them at 478-374-6988.