MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County Sheriff's Office said three shootings happened over Monday night and Tuesday morning are not related. Still, they've put some people in Macon on edge like Abu Azizah.
"It make you feel like you are not safe. It could happen to everybody," Azzizah said.
He owns A&R Furniture, which is across Eisenhower Parkway from a business where a man was wounded around 11:00 p.m. Monday night.
Bibb County Sheriff's Office said the man who was shot was 57-years-old and is in stable, but critical condition.
"That's really sad. It make us feel like to be unsafe," Azizah said. "All the time, and it's not worth it."
Around 1:00 a.m. later that evening, another shooting happened in a neighborhood on Andrews Drive. The Sheriff's Office said it seemed a man was entering an occupied home when he was shot and died at the scene.
They've identified him as 51-year-old David Maynard Morris Jr.
And downtown on Broadway, another shooting happened in a parking lot by the Riverview Hotel. That shooting was also fatal.
The Sheriff's Office said 36-year-old Eric Ivan Searcy-Bryson was shot and killed after trying to break into a parked Mercedes. Someone was sleeping in the car, and they shot him. The car seemed to have tinted windows, based on the broken glass in the parking lot left from the shooting.
The manager of the hotel didn't want to be identified, but said he doesn't believe either person was staying at the hotel.
Azizah said when he moved to Macon, he never expected to see such a high level of violent crime.
"To be honest with you I've been here for 22 years, and it was a lot better before these days," Azizah said. "It's getting worse, and worse, and worse. Somebody has to do something."
This is the 10th shooting in Macon this year. All three shootings are still under investigation.
Anyone with information regarding the crimes can contact Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500 or the Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.
It comes after Macon-Bibb County posted the lowest number of homicides in recent history. Last year, Macon saw only 42 homicides down from the recent high of 70 in 2022, according to data from Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones.
Macon had seen a rise in homicides coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, Macon saw roughly 50 homicides each year. Pre-pandemic, Macon would see 20 to 40 homicides each year based on the most recently available data.
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