Macon sheriff to seek charges against adults in park shooting

Twelve teenagers were shot just after midnight Sunday, Sept. 27, at a birthday gathering in a Macon, Georgia, park, and the Bibb County sheriff said he would pursue charges against adults who knew that teenagers involved had guns.

Two of the wounded, an 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy, were in critical but stable condition at Atrium Health Navicent The Medical Center in Macon on Sunday afternoon, about 12 hours after the shooting, Sheriff David Davis said. The other ten were in stable condition. All of the victims were between 17 and 19 years old, and no one had been arrested as of Sunday evening.

From a Jones County rental

Davis said the party was for a young woman turning 18 and began at a short-term rental property in neighboring Jones County. The property owner ordered the group out after becoming concerned about their behavior and receiving information that there were firearms in the house.

The group reconvened around the skate park at the center of Carolyn Crayton Park, in downtown Macon about 85 miles southeast of Atlanta, roughly two hours after the park's official 10 p.m. closing time. A permitted high school reunion had been held there earlier and broke up around 10 p.m.; investigators believe those attendees had left before the birthday crowd arrived.

The first report of gunfire reached the Macon-Bibb Emergency 911 Center at 12:06 a.m. Sunday, and deputies were dispatched to a shooting at what the sheriff's office called a large gathering.

Dozens of people were gathered near the skate park when a second group arrived across the street. The two sides exchanged words, brandished firearms and opened fire on each other. Davis said there was no evidence at this point that any of the injured had fired shots.

Thirty seconds of gunfire

A surveillance camera on a park maintenance building recorded part of the shooting. The sheriff's office released the footage, which shows a crowd scattering through about 30 seconds of what sounds like non-stop gunfire and ends on a girl's scream. Bibb County Schools Superintendent Dan Sims and the district's campus police chief, Latricia Gittens, watched the video at Sunday's news conference.

I can't remember the last time we've had this many people shot at one time.

Several weapons appeared to have been used, some of them semi-automatic or automatic, Davis said, and investigators recovered a large number of spent shell casings, though the number of shots fired had not been determined.

Deputies were still on their way to the park when emergency notifications told them victims were arriving at a local medical facility in personal vehicles. A large number of cars, along with family and friends of the wounded, filled the area outside. Hospital staff taped off the area and placed the emergency room on lockdown.

The twelfth victim came to light later that day, after the sheriff's office had initially reported 11 people shot. At 12:24 p.m. Sunday, the emergency center was notified that a 19-year-old man had arrived at a local medical facility with a gunshot wound that was not life-threatening, and investigators determined he had been shot during the incident at the park. He is listed in stable condition.

Seven vehicles, ten witnesses

Deputies towed seven vehicles to the crime lab, four that had carried victims to the hospital and three left behind at the park, and took ten witnesses, some of them teenagers, to the Criminal Investigation Division for interviews.

The FBI is assisting because of the number of people involved, Davis said, though the evidence so far indicates the shooting was local. The sheriff's office is also in contact with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about assistance. Authorities believe those involved are from Macon or elsewhere in Middle Georgia.

Investigators have people of interest but have not established a motive, and they have not said what the two groups argued about or which side fired first.

The sheriff's office listed the wounded as four 18-year-old males, five 17-year-old males, two 18-year-old females and the 19-year-old man. Their names have not been released. All were part of the birthday group, and Davis said three are football players at Northeast High School.

The district's message to families

Davis said the young people at the party were students at Central High School, Northeast High School, the school district's online school or SOAR Academy, the district's school for students with serious disciplinary issues. The Bibb County School District sent messages on Sunday evening telling students that school counselors were available to anyone who needed help processing the shooting.

Charges, and who faces them

Davis said he would seek charges against adults who knew that teenagers at the party had weapons, and that he would push to hold parents responsible. He said he had no doubt that some adult relatives or guardians knew about the guns. He also said that even if some of the shooters turn out to be minors, he would likely press for them to be charged as adults.

Not a doubt in my mind, and if we can charge any adult in connection with this, we're going to do that, too.

Whether any juvenile suspects are charged as adults would be up to the district attorney, Davis said, and he said he would support it.

Davis said investigators would make arrests, though he did not say when, and the sheriff's office has not announced any charges.

A run of recent shootings

The shooting nearly doubled the number of people wounded by gunfire in Macon in recent weeks, according to GPB News. Davis said deputies reached the park quickly because investigators were already out that night, searching and canvassing for suspects and witnesses in the earlier cases.

Investigators are also examining information suggesting that some of those involved may be connected to earlier shootings, including one on Anthony Road that injured five people on Sept. 23, BNO News reported. Treyvon Antwan Deshazier, 20, was arrested in connection with that shooting.

Macon-Bibb County had been recording fewer homicides before Sunday. Mayor Lester Miller, who stood beside Davis at the news conference, said in March 2025 that the county logged 71 homicides in 2022, 40 in 2023 and 39 in 2024, with homicides of people under 18 falling from 15 in 2022 to two in 2024, the Macon Telegraph reported.

At the time, the county's surveillance network ran to roughly 150 Flock Safety cameras and about 500 Verkada cameras, and the district attorney's office first used ShotSpotter evidence at trial in August 2024. Investigators have not said whether any of those tools figured in Sunday's case. Anyone with information has been asked to call the Bibb County Sheriff's Office at 478-751-7500 or Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.