May 23, 2013
There have been four unsolved drive-by shootings in our area in the past week.
Luckily no one's been injured...but no one's been arrested, either.
The names and addresses in the police reports may be different, but the meat of each victim's story is the same: It was nighttime, and someone fired gunshots at their property.
A'toya Moten just moved to Augusta...and boy, what a welcome.
"As they pulled off we heard a shot hit the window," she says.
That's right, a gunshot.
It entered through the front of her grandmother's house and exited through the back.
"The cops said the shot was fired from right there. I don't know how it was fired from right there 'cuz that's where the case was."
"Anytime a weapon is discharged and it's an element of danger, we're concerned with the public's safety," says Sgt. Richard Roundtree of the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators are very concerned, because since Friday, April 28, there have been four reports of drive-by shootings: Lisbon Road, Savannah Suites Motel, Boyken Road...and a home on Lyncrest Drive, where Sheila Polen's five-year-old son came inches from being struck.
"And just when he went to bend down to put his toys in the thing, that's when we heard the three sounds and he said, 'Mommy, somebody's shootin'," Polen says.
The shootings are very similar. They're all nighttime drive-bys and they all ended with a bullet hole through a window. Yet police can't confirm they're connected.
"Seeing if it's in fact one group or a series of people going around shooting, or is it a retaliation for something?" Sgt. Roundtree says.
As police continue working this drive-by dilemma, Polen refuses to live in fear.
"I feel like I've been invaded, but you know what? I pray everyday," she says.
These shootings have caused hundreds of dollars in damage, and at least two of the victims will be pressing charges.
In the meantime, officials would like your help. If you know anything, contact the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.
