On Tuesday, three teenagers were killed and another is in critical condition after a shooting early in the morning at a Bibb County apartment complex.
Officials from the Bibb County Sherriff’s office say that officers responded to reports of multiple people shot at the West Club Apartments around 2:30 a.m.
At the scene, officers found 16-year-old Marcelles Williams Jr. unresponsive and he was pronounced dead.
Officers found three other victims, 18-year-old Jahryon Willis, 18-year-old Tyshun Williams, and an unidentified 14-year-old boy, who were shot near building 10 of the apartment complex.
The three teenagers were rushed to Atrium Health, where the two 18-year-olds died from their injuries. The 14-year-old remains in critical condition.
The teenagers’ deaths come amid an epidemic of children and teenagers falling victim to gun violence in major cities in Georgia.
In Atlanta, the number of children and teenagers killed by gun violence so far in 2022 greatly exceeds the number killed in 2021, which itself was already a high number, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“In 2021, more than two dozen children and teenagers were killed by gun violence in metro Atlanta and several others were injured. That violence has continued in 2022,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “As of Dec. 4, there have been at least 71 children under the age of 18 shot. Of them at least 37 have died.”
