MACON, Ga. — A Macon family is mourning yet another teenage tragedy.
16-year-old Nathaniel Elder died Wednesday night from gunshot wounds in the back.
It happened on the 3800 block of Log Cabin Drive, in front of the Green Meadows apartments.
13WMAZ reporter Megan Western talked to his grandmother, who said Macon's gun violence has touched her family before.
"I probably won't have a good rest of my life, because he ain't here with me," says Delois Braswell.
Braswell says hearing about the death of her grandson was a shock.
"Me and Mr. Jones, we had a back-and-forth thing, 'Your grandson's shot,' 'No, he ain't -- he's in the bed,' 'Your grandson's shot,' 'No, he ain't -- he's in the bed.' 'Go check.' I went there to check. Nathan wasn't back there. That was shocking," she says.
She says he just got back from a Job Corps training program in Albany Wednesday night around 7 p.m.
They assume he snuck out after they got home, something Braswell says is unlike him because he had a curfew.
By 9:45 p.m. he was pronounced dead.
Braswell said Nate had a troubled past, "After those troubled days, we sent him to job corps, mainly for his survival, to be honest."
She says while there he studied agriculture, and was getting his GED.
"His ambition was to be an on-the-road truck driver, that's what he wanted to do," Braswell says.
She adds that she sent him away from Macon to keep him alive.
"What I was trying to keep him from doing, it still happened anyway," she says.
She also says she thinks she could have avoided this had Nate come home later from the job corps.
"I told them, 'I'll pick him up Thursday, I'll drive to Albany and pick him up Thursday,' but they sent him on the Greyhound. I didn't want that," she says
Braswell says she's already lost a son, Marcus, who was murdered.
Now, she has to bury a second child.
"In the long run, maybe you can accept it, but right now, I want my baby to walk through that back door," says Braswell.
Bibb County leaders have been working to prevent gun violence. They held a gun prevention forum Tuesday to discuss these issues.
Commissioner Virgil Watkins says they had a large turnout in African American males.
"Making sure we're being intentional about the plight of Black males who we know are living in poverty, and in difficult situations throughout their lives," Watkins says this was one of the points they discuss.
Watkins says they can continue to do this through fully funding and fleshing out their Macon Violence Prevention Programs.
"The violence interrupters that were using for the peacekeeping, the mental health matter programs, getting those in every community," Watkins says
He adds that he also wants to see more people receive caseworkers, if needed.
Nate's family says they will continue to work for justice in this case, and ask you to submit any helping information to the sheriff's office.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office says they're still trying to find out what led up to the shooting.
Anyone with information about the case can call the sheriff's office at (478) 751-7500.