MACON, Ga. — In a press conference Monday afternoon, Sheriff David Davis with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office gave additional details on three shootings that took place in Macon on Saturday.
The full press conference is below:
'A SATURDAY OF MAYHEM AND DESTRUCTION'
Davis started off by quickly addressing the first shooting of the day, which took place on Montpelier Avenue around 5:30 p.m. He says a teenager shot his uncle, Ricky Wyche, after an argument at M&M Groceries. Davis says this was a domestic case and was not connected to the two other shootings later that day.
The teenager was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
'DEATH VALLEY' PARTY
Davis showed a flyer for the large block party where one of the shootings took place, near Simmons Street and Suzanne Drive in west Macon. He says they got some noise complaints about the party before the shooting happened, and showed a video from Facebook of what the party looked like.
Then, Davis says a black Dodge Charger drove up near the crowd, stopped in the middle of Suzanne Drive, and started doing 'burnouts.' He says an attendee of the party told the male driver to stop, which caused a short physical fight between the two.
Davis says witnesses say gunshots started firing from the direction of the car. He says there were other people in crowd with firearms as well, so it's hard to tell who started shooting and how many people were shooting. In total, he says they found about 200 shell casings on the ground.
The sheriff's office received the shots fired call around 9:38 p.m., and that's when they started responding. Davis says at this point people were running and it was 'pandemonium.'
While they found three people shot, 25-year-old Chazmine Tookes, 28-year-old Adam Muhammed, and 25-year-old Todd Grayer, Davis says a lot of people were grazed by bullets and some people fell.
A fourth person, 25-year-old Gerald Pennyman, was taken to the Medical Center, Navicent Health by personal vehicle. Davis says he is still in 'serious' condition.
LOG CABIN DRIVE
At this point, Davis says people were running in the direction of where the next shooting would take place: in a parking lot on Log Cabin Drive and Hillcrest Avenue.
Davis says they believe the parking lot was possibly overflow parking for the party on Suzanne Drive, and heard people were being shuttled by a golf cart back and forth from the party.
He says another dark-colored vehicle pulls into the parking lot. Davis says he's not sure if it's the same black Dodge Charger as before, but two people wearing masks get out of this car and start shooting into the crowd that had gathered. The car speeds away after firing.
The gunfire injured 25-year-old Marquise Simmons, and killed 22-year-old Deroderick Ridley, who was taken to Navicent by a Bibb County patrol vehicle. The death marks Bibb County's sixth homicide of 2019.
Davis says he was in Nevada at the time of the shootings, but commended the work of his deputies. He says even off-duty and jail deputies came out to help. Davis gave special recognition to Sergeant Linda Howard and few other deputies who sprung into action, giving Ridley CPR and medical attention, trying to save his life.
ARE THE TWO SHOOTINGS RELATED?
He says the shootings are probably connected in some way or fashion, but cannot say if it was the same shooter in both situations.
Davis made it clear to say there were no fights or arguments that took place at Navicent Health, but that they were dealing with large crowds because of the amount of people who had injuries.
Davis says they're now looking for more witnesses to put more of the pieces together. If you have any information on this weekend's shootings, you can call the Bibb County Sheriff's Office at 478-751-7500 or Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.