South Georgia Homecoming Party Turns Deadly as Gunfire Leaves 2 Dead, Dozens Injured

South Georgia Homecoming Party Turns Deadly as Gunfire Leaves 2 Dead, Dozens Injured

AP

Vienna : Law enforcement officials are still working to determine just what happened when a chaotic homecoming party spanning a four-block radius of a southern Georgia town erupted in gunfire early Sunday, leaving two people dead and nearly three dozen others injured.

Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy identified the two people killed as 21-year-old Jaquevion Jackson of Cordele and 23-year-old Macaleb Jackson of Hawkinsville, Georgia.

Some of the three dozen injured had gunshot wounds, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Chris Hosey said Sunday evening, but he could not provide a number.

“We’re still trying to work through that,” Hosey said during a news conference Sunday evening.

No arrests had been reported hours later, and authorities gave no possible motive for the gunfire.

The injured ranged in age from 14 to 51, and they were taken to several regional hospitals, Peavy said. Some were in critical condition Sunday evening and others were stable, he said.

More than 1,000 people attended the party

More than 1,000 people had gathered at the site, and more than 50 shots were fired in at least two locations about a block apart in Vienna, Peavy told WMAZ-TV. Vienna is a small, rural community about 130 miles (about 210 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

Deputies were near the scene when the shooting began, Peavy said, and after they arrived more gunfire erupted about a block away.

“We don’t know if it’s coming at us or someone else,” he said. “You just have to keep doing what you’re doing and hope you don’t get hit by gunfire.”

The incident took place over homecoming weekend for Dooly County High School.

One woman recalled rapid-fire shots and people running

Ashley Gee, 30, who lives in nearby Turner County and came to Vienna for the party, described to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution a constant barrage of gunfire, imitating the sound of rapid-fire shots.

“Like a machine gun,” she said. “One person ran, and everybody started running.”

The AJC said the party drew in people from other surrounding counties in south Georgia following a local high school football team’s victory at a homecoming game Friday night.

The shooting was not at a school-sponsored event, said Sherrod Willaford, superintendent of the Dooly County School System.

“We recognize that its impact may reach many of our students, families, and staff,” he said in a statement. Schools will open Monday, he said, but additional safety measures have been put in place. He did not specify what they are.

Peavy said the festivities began Friday night, and that it had “gone well” with “respect from the community” that evening as deputies patrolled the event.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Lydia Bullard declined to answer questions about the shooting, saying it was an ongoing investigation.