MACON, Ga. — A late-night block party with hundreds of people turned into a free fire zone.
Bibb County Sheriff David Davis says more than one shooter opened fire at more than one scene.
Sergeant Linda Howard was one of the first to respond to one of them.
"You had hundreds of people and everybody not knowing what to do," she said. "You had people running, you had people screaming."
At least five people were injured and two more killed a massive West Macon block party called ‘Death Valley’ ended in gunfire.
Investigators recovered more than 200 shell casings at the scene.
Bibb County sheriff David Davis says the scope of the violence stretched emergency medical services thin, forcing deputies to move one victim in the back of a patrol car because, they say, no ambulance was available.
"It happens once in a great period of time when all of the EMS resources are taxed," Davis said.
Community ambulance, the company that supplies ambulances to that part of West Macon, said they handled 6 shooting-related calls, along with other routine 911 calls throughout the night.
They say they responded to the scene where deputies transported the victim in about 8 minutes, which is within the generally accepted response time range according to an industry trade journal.
But EMS wasn’t the only agency stretched thin by Saturday night’s shootings.
"Yes, we would have loved to have had more deputies Saturday night," said Davis. "There's no doubt about it."
He says his office is about 100 deputies short of being fully staffed. They staff up on the weekends to make sure coverage is adequate, but that can mean more work for deputies who have to pull overtime shifts.
"If we had been fully staffed we probably would have had the same number of units out to handle a normal Saturday night," Davis said. "As we all know, Saturday night for about 2 hours became certainly abnormal."
Sergeant Howard says in moments like those, more manpower is always an asset.
"It’s very important, but at the same time we worked with what we had," she said.
Davis added that Georgia State Patrol, Medical Center Navicent Health Police, Mercer Police, off-duty Bibb deputies, and jail employees all helped control the situation Saturday night.
The staffing problem, however, persists.
According to Davis, for about the last year the Bibb Sheriff's Office has lost about two deputies for every new one they hire.
To combat this, Davis has rolled out an incentive program for new recruits who stay with the Sheriff's Office worth up to $2,500.