DUBLIN, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is looking into a double homicide in Dublin after seven people were shot at a West Avenue home on Easter Sunday.
Now, one pastor thinks faith leaders and local organizations can step up and help prevent these sorts of tragedies.
"I come from the streets. I mean I haven't always pastored. I come from alcohol abuse, drug abuse, the gang-banging, the drug slanging. All of that," Otha Stanley, a co-pastor at Restoration Church Ministries Incorporated, said.
He said God turned his life around, and his testimony is a tool he uses to preach anti-violence. His church is a mobile ministry that goes around town helping people and reaching out to anybody who needs it.
"I can sit down with you guys by the help of God and we can reason," Stanley said. "I can show you the way. And the answer is not the drugs, the answer is not the shooting. The answer is always gonna be Jesus,"
He hopes Sunday's shooting is a wake-up call that everybody in town needs to do their part to teach anti-violence.
"We can't look for the law enforcement to do all of that. Cause they put out a fire over here, it's just like a brush fire, it'll pop up over there," Stanley said.
The Easter Sunday shooting was called into Dublin Police around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday. Of the seven victims, they say two died from their gunshot wounds and five were treated at hospitals. Dublin Police called the GBI around 2:20 a.m. and they took over the investigation.
According to a press release from the GBI, they say a car stopped near the West Avenue home and someone in the car fired shots at the home. The rounds killed 23-year-old Miyori Ellington and 24-year-old Sacred Brown. They were both from Dublin.
As of Sunday, the GBI said four other victims were still in the hospital. According to the incident report from Dublin Police, three victims were driven to Fairview Park Hospital before officers arrived.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Stanley said the church leaders in town should come together to tackle the root of violence by reaching out to more people, especially the youth.
"It's gonna take all the politicians, all the elected officials and especially the spiritual leaders — we got to come together," Stanley said.
He says that could make a big difference in curbing violence in Dublin.
No one has been arrested in the case. The GBI is asking anyone with information to call their office in Eastman at 478-374-6988 or the Dublin Police Department at 478-275-0803. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.