MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — The Havior family in Milledgeville is mourning the death of 18-year-old Syee Havior.
He was shot to death early Thursday after four people invaded the family home.
13WMAZ’s Jessica Cha spoke with family about Syee and what happened.
Down a dirt road on Black Spring Church Road is where the Havior house was invaded by four people. Syee had just gotten home from work when the front door opened and the invaders began to shoot.
"Syee hollered out, 'Daddy!’' Then I heard three or four more shots. I just jumped up and ran to him and I saw him on the floor.”
That's how Otis Havior, Syee's father, remembers that night. He says one of the invaders ran out the back door while one of Syee's brother's tried to apply pressure to his wounds.
"They say he died at the hospital, but I don’t believe it, because when they were holding him, he took his last breath,” Otis Havior says solemnly.
The GBI says someone stole weapons from the Havior home a few weeks earlier. Otis says their items were returned, thought the problem was resolved, but the intruders returned.
“I never thought in a million years this would happen over something like this could happen over something that small,” Otis explains.
Syee's older brothers, Corey, Denario, and Jamiroe all received a call about the shooting and rushed to the family home.
“I drove past the ambulance when I came out here,” says Denario. “I seen my brother on the floor, he wasn't breathing.”
“I literally ran every red light there was to get out here. I ran past the police, I ran into the house,” Corey says. “For me to walk inside that house and to see my baby brother just laying there. What can I do? I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm praying saying, ‘Lord, let him make it through. He has only been here 18 years. He ain’t been here long enough to do anything.'”
They say that Syee had a bright future. He loved to work, hang out with family, and did well in school.
"When you know someone's out there living the wrong life, it don't hurt as bad because you know they're out there living that life,” Jamiroe says. “That's what makes it hard, because he was a good one."
The GBI says two of the four invaders were juveniles. Jamiroe says Milledgeville youth violence has gotten worse, with shootings getting more severe.
"It’s almost like people don’t care. I just wish a lot of the younger people in Milledgeville would realize that there's more to life than all the beefing. It's about living, being able to grow old. A lot of these young people don’t have anything to do with their life except stand around.” he says.
Corey says he agrees with his brother.
“We’re killing each other. They never speak on 'black-on-black crime.' We’re not out here uplifting each other, which we should be doing, but we’re not. The juvenile justice system is just not doing enough. Until they step up and start holding these kids accountable for these crimes they’re committing, this world is going to get worse than what it is,” he says.
Syee's mother, Paula Clark, says she wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone. She says justice will come.
“I hope they go to prison for the rest of their life, because my baby ain't going to be able to see daylight again,” she says.
Clark says he was trying to finish high school and wanted to go to college.
“So they went over to the college in Macon to look at the dorm or whatever. When he came back, I asked him if he liked it, and he said, ‘Yeah, I love it.’ I said, 'Perfect,'” she remembers.
She says Syee had just become a dad two months ago.
“Whoever took his life away from him, it is so wrong in so many ways. I love my son to death,” Clark says.
Mary Chandler with the GBI told us they made another arrest – 18-year-old Malik Smith. That means two of the intruders are in custody. Both are charged with felony murder.