MCRAE-HELENA, Ga. — Two brothers are dead in McRae-Helena and their uncle is in jail on murder charges after a shooting on Tuesday night, McRae Police Chief Glenn Giles said.
But the death of brothers Terry and Carlos Raiford has hit the community hard.
“We lost two people in the same family in one night,” Giles said. “It’s uncalled for.”
While many of the details are unclear, Giles says it all started as a fight between two brothers. On Wednesday afternoon, officers arrested the brothers' uncle Mark Jones in connection to the shooting.
It happened at around 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday night in McRae at a property in the 30 block of 9th Street, Giles said. According to local residents, it happened at a spot where people would just come, relax and hang out.
“We still come up here and hang out,” McRae resident Shawn Madison said. “Get away, come here and hang out. It helped the vibe sometimes.”
It is unclear what prompted the fight between them or why their uncle is charged with murder.
Since the investigation was handed over from the McRae Police Department to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Giles said that those questions would need to be directed to them.
But in McRae, the death of the Raifords has left the community in mourning.
“I don’t know what triggered these boys to do this,” Madison said. “I wish it would have never happened. They were good boys – they really were.”
Madison is a friend of the Raiford brothers’ aunt, and he said that she wishes that they would have turned to her to help resolve the situation.
“I talked to their aunt last night and she was crying that this happened,” Madison said.
The owner of the property where the Raiford’s were killed said they were good people.
“They were feuding about from time to time about a little nothing,” Morris McMillian said. “All of us have problems… [but] they were really good boys in their own ways.”
In the aftermath of a tragic shooting – especially among a group of family members – Giles emphasized the need to stop emotions from translating into violence.
“We all have to live together,” Giles said. “We need to learn how to control our emotions and our anger.”
All this in a community that Giles describes as “quiet.”
“We have a peaceful community,” Giles said. “I don’t know [if] anything like this ever happened.”
This story was reported by Simone Soublet.
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