News 12 at 11 o'clock / Thursday, February 2, 2012

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Investigators are still working to figure out who assaulted a man on East Boundary Wednesday afternoon.

The victim, Jermaine Little, is in critical condition.

"No one seems to see anything," Lt. Blaise Dresser said.

He has a hard time believing no one saw what happened at the IGA Wednesday.

"There were a lot of people who witnessed that, and probably know exactly who the suspect is," he said.

Dresser says he believes that because East Boundary is a highly populated area.

"It's a busy sidewalk. You go down there any time of the week at 4 in the afternoon, and you're going to see a lot of people out there," he said.

Dresser also says it's complicated as to why people who live in the area don't want to help out law enforcement.

"The notion of, you know, 'I don't snitch, I don't want to be looked at as a snitch,' you're not snitching," Dresser explained.

Joe, who lives on East Boundary, said he doesn't think of it as snitching.

"We like to say, they don't tell," he said. "You mind your own business so you stay out of trouble."

Investigators say until that attitude changes in the community, the whole neighborhood will be in trouble.

"If you truly want to live in a safe neighborhood, you have to take ownership of your neighborhood," Dresser said.

He also said it's going to take more than one person to take ownership of the community.

"There's a lot of good people that live down around East Boundary, and those people I think live in fear everyday," he said. "They refuse to come forward out of fear, fear of being retaliated against."