Police in Georgia stated two adolescents were killed and seven others were injured in a “mass shooting” during a Sweet 16 party earlier this month, according to PEOPLE. During a press conference on Wednesday, Douglas County Sheriff Tim Pounds described the shooting as a “gang hit,” but added that the victims “injured and killed were not the intended targets.”
According to police, the March 4 incident occurred as partygoers were leaving the premises. According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the party was hosted at a house with over 100 persons in attendance.
The shooting is alleged to have started at 10 p.m. Samuel Moon, 15, and AJ’anaye (AJ) Hill, 14, were identified as the victims. According to the DCSO, the injured individuals ranged in age from 14 to 19. Sheriff Pounds also stated that three individuals have been apprehended in connection with the “mass shooting/homicide.”
Chase Terrence McDowell and Chance Terrell McDowell, two of the accused, are 17-year-old twins. Timothy Lamar Coleman Jr., 18, was named as a third suspect, and Kingston Cottman, 17, was later detained in connection with the shooting. Each of the accused teenagers is charged with two counts of mass murder, nine counts of aggravated assault, seven counts of aggravated battery, and other pending crimes.
Suspects
“They were innocent bystanders,” the sheriff said about the deceased and injured victims, but did not disclose the gangs involved in the shooting, explaining that he did not intend to give them any “air time” or “dress them up”, per PEOPLE.
Pounds also said there are outstanding arrests to be made. Asked why the suspects were filmed while being taken into custody, he explained it was “simply because I told my community and the public that I was going to catch these guys who committed this terrible crime in my county.”
“I worked along with my investigators doing exactly that. I was there during the take-down part,” he added.
Hill’s mother, Chanell White, has since set up a GoFundMe to help raise funds to cover her funeral and other expenses. In the fundraiser, the deceased teen’s mother said her daughter’s “life was tragically taken away by a senseless act [sic]of gun violence.” She said Hill was at a friend’s Sweet 16 party when an “uninvited guest became belligerent” and started fighting. White revealed her deceased daughter “was struck in the back of the head as she was running away.”
She added: “Ajanaye was a beautiful vibrant 14-year-old African American female. She was a freshman at Douglas Co. High School. She loved to dance, sing, create Tik Toks, and love on her friends & family. She had aspirations of becoming an Attorney.”
Moon’s family also explained the deceased 15-year-old was “a bystander, fleeing from stray bullets, which struck him in the back.” “Samuel is loved by his family and had many friends,” his family added in a GoFundMe. “He was goofy, loving, kind, just fun to be around. He was a Sophomore at Lithia Springs High School.”