Gunfire at a Georgia Homecoming Block Party Kills 2 and Wounds 35, With No Arrests Yet
More than 1,000 people were packed into two Vienna streets when at least 50 shots rang out just after 1 a.m. Sunday. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has not named a suspect or a motive.
Two people were shot to death and 35 others were wounded early Sunday at a homecoming-weekend block party in Vienna, Georgia, a town of fewer than 3,000 people about 130 miles south of Atlanta. No arrests had been announced as of Monday, and investigators have not said what set off the gunfire.
The shooting began shortly before 1:30 a.m. on October 4 in a residential neighborhood where an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 people had gathered to celebrate Dooly County High School's homecoming weekend. The party was not a school-sponsored event. Authorities say at least 50 shots were fired at two locations about a block apart, near the intersection of West Pine Street and Jane Street and near Jane Street and Snyder Street. Sheriff's deputies who were patrolling the area heard the shots, and people ran in every direction. Some of the injured were struck by vehicles as the crowd fled.
The dead were identified as Ja'Quavion Jackson, 21, of Cordele, and Macaleb Jackson, 23, of Hawkinsville. Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls said the two were found several blocks from where the shooting started. "This doesn't, it's not supposed to, happen in a small town like that," Walls said.
The wounded range in age from 14 to 51. About 25 were hospitalized at several regional medical centers, and their conditions run from critical to stable. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has joined the Dooly County Sheriff's Office in the case, said most of the 35 injured were hit by gunfire.
Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy said nothing like it had happened in the county before. "We've never had this many people affected from one incident, and it's heartbreaking and sad," Peavy said. Investigators say the case is active and ongoing. They have released no suspect description and have not said whether the shooting involved one gunman or several, or whether it grew out of a dispute at the party.
Vienna is the county seat of Dooly County, a rural stretch of south-central Georgia roughly 50 miles south of Macon. The town has been through a mass shooting before. A 2018 nightclub shooting there led to 15 charges after an investigation that took three years. Sunday's casualty count is far larger.
The shooting is the second mass shooting in central Georgia in a week. On September 28, at least 12 teenagers were wounded at a skatepark in Macon, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators are asking anyone who was at the party, or who has photos or video from the night, to contact the GBI or the Dooly County Sheriff's Office. With more than 1,000 people at the scene and phones in most hands, video from the party is likely to be central to the investigation.
