Bibb Sheriff Davis: ‘Macon Gardens shootings might be related’

L.J. Malone hopes his message works.

“When you see things like that happen, it saddens you. Especially if you’re one of the people, or you’re a person, that wants to see good things happen,” Malone said. 

Malone says two shootings this month at the Macon Gardens Apartments are just another reason for his request for peace.

“You know instead of always coming in at the end of situations, and then trying to fix it, because a lot of times it’s too late then,” Malone said. 

He and a few others are hopeful that spreading Macon peace can save a life. 

Bibb County Sheriff David Davis agrees.

“Whenever something like this happens, we try to stay on top of it to where that we want to prevent these types of things,” Davis said. 

Since the shootings, his deputies are a constant presence at the complex — trying to talk to residents and possible witnesses.

“They can always make an anonymous call, they can always get the name of an investigator when they go out and make contact and then contact them off to the side anonymously,” Davis said. 

“A lot of these people need to be shown that there is a better way. They need to see some hope, see some promise,” Malone said. 

Malone says at times it can be frustrating… the amount of work his group and others put in — trying to make Macon a better place to live.

“If you go talk to a lot of the victims or if you talk to certain people that have been affected by that, they’ll tell you that it’s the same situation over and over again. There’s just no value placed on their own lives, so of course they’re not going to value somebody else’s,” Malone said. 

But neither he nor Sheriff Davis will give up until the streets are safer.

“It also boils down to what my people do. When we get a call for an incident like this, we have to figure out who did it and bring that person to jail,” Davis said.