If it isn’t bad enough that Albany and Dougherty County have become known as a Georgia hot spot for the coronavirus, now violent crimes and murders are on the increase. County Coroner Michael Fowler is blunt: “(T)o make it so bad, it’s black on black crime. And it seems like nobody is really saying anything about it. Just another black going to jail, another black gone to the grave. Something needs to be said. Something needs to be done,” said Fowler.
In an interview with WALB News anchor/reporter Jim Wallace, the coroner points to the growing and deadly gunfire that is occurring. Dougherty Co. coroner concerned about black on black crime
Wallace reports that earlier this month a 16-year-old teen was killed and three friends wounded in a drive-by shooting in Albany. Soon after that a father was gunned down in another drive-by attack, and police made arrests in both shootings. But right after those incidents a woman was wounded when bullets were sprayed into her house. And two men were also caught on surveillance video shooting at a car with women and children trying to get away from them— “again,” Wallace reports, “black on black crime.”
“Shooting up the cars, shooting up one mother’s house, killing one another, it just doesn’t make sense,” Fowler says.
Dougherty Judicial Circuit District Attorney Greg Edwards, however, says some of this violence is gang related. He also thinks the COVID-19 pandemic could be partly to the blame for the surge of violence. “A lot of the instigation of these particular crimes has come over social media. I think the fact that people are sheltering in place and communicating more in this method is causing them to want to act out,” the DA says. And he adds that most of these cases involve teenagers and high caliber weapons.
The coroner says with black areas hit hard by death or sickness from COVID-19, the spike in violence is hurting even more. “Only thing you did is create another problem for two families. One family has got to now start going to court to deal with you. Then another person going to the grave with their loved ones,” Fowler laments.
Phil Kent is the CEO & Publisher of InsiderAdvantage Georgia and James magazine.
