MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County Sheriff's Office confirmed new details Wednesday about a chase that ended with a car wrecking in a west Macon Walmart parking lot.
Tuesday, we reported about heavy police presence at the Walmart on Harrison Road in Macon. This is after 41-year-old Ronnie Albea was shot and killed in the parking lot of the store during an attempted armed robbery Friday.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office told 13WMAZ they were investigating a car that crashed into a tree, but quickly people who claimed to have witnessed the scene said there was much more to the story.
13WMAZ received more than a dozen calls, Facebook messages, and emails. We also saw people responding to our original story online based on what Bibb County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
There’s several claims on social media about what may have happened at the Harrison Road Walmart Tuesday so we set out to verify what's true and what's false.
Our sources are eyewitnesses and Bibb County Sheriff David Davis.
TRUE: Bibb deputies dispatched to "shots fired" call.
Let's begin with the first claim that deputies were dispatched to a "shots fired call." When we asked the Sheriff's Office Tuesday, they would not say.
But the sheriff had a different response in our interview Wednesday.
"Several callers came in that we had some type of disturbance, and there were some shots fired," Davis said.
So we verified, yes, deputies were dispatched on a "shots fired" call.
TRUE: Shots were fired near the Walmart parking lot.
But were shots actually fired? In an emailed statement to 13WMAZ on Tuesday, BSO said no one was shot, and based on their preliminary investigation, no shots were fired there.
But several viewers contacted us saying they witnessed a man in a black truck speeding through the parking lot while shooting out the window and a tan Honda speeding away from the truck.
"I seen him fire two shots but there were three, maybe four shots after when he got out of sight," said a witness who called our newsroom but didn’t wish to be named because he was scared for his safety.
He says he and his wife were driving out of the Murphy’s gas station when that black truck sped by just feet away .
"We would have either been hit by him because there’s no way we he would have stopped. I ain’t never seen someone drive like that," the man said.
The Sheriff told 13WMAZ Wednesday that there were shots fired. Davis says the shooting began at Wilson Road at Columbus Road and continued down a long stretch of road until the tan Honda sedan crashed into a tree in the Walmart parking lot.
Shell casings were collected along the route, but Davis says they have not found casing in the actual Walmart parking lot.
So we verified, yes, shots were fired.
FALSE: DEPUTIES ARRESTED THE SHOOTER(S).
The third claim brought to us to verify is -- multiple people were arrested.
Witnesses claim they saw it, and our cameras were there when a man in a red ski mask was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car.
Davis says at least four people were involved in the shooting.
"There’s not been any arrests so far. The investigators are going to be talking to the DA’s office to see sorta the facts of the case and what appropriate cases will be brought," Davis said.
So we verified no, there's been no arrests in the shooting. Sheriff Davis says they are interviewing those involved.
Davis says no one was injured in the shooting. At least two guns were confiscated.