Georgia Homecoming Shooting Victims Named as Police Appeal for Help - Newsweek

Two people killed after gunfire erupted at a neighborhood homecoming party in Georgia on Sunday have been identified.

The shooting, which left another 35 injured, began at about 1:25 a.m. Sunday at a neighborhood party that spanned four blocks in the city of Vienna.

Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy in a press conference described it as a "senseless act of violence" and said the investigation is ongoing. No arrests have been reported.

The two victims killed have been named as Ja’Quavion Aderious Jackson, 21, and Macaleb Malik Jackson, 23.

The 35 other victims ranged in age from 14 to 51, with their conditions ranging from stable to critical, Peavy said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has appealed to anyone with information about the shooting to contact authorities or submit an anonymous tip as law enforcement continues to investigate.

Newsweek contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for comment via email on Monday, outside of regular working hours.

Authorities estimated that around 1,000 people had been at the party at the time of the shooting.

"If you can imagine over 1,000 people, I would say, and they're going every direction. Even while we were on scene, there was still gunfire about a block away while all of us were on scene trying to get attention, medical attention to the ones that needed it," Peavy told WMAZ-TV.

It was not immediately clear how many of the injured had been shot, with victims taken to several local hospitals.

Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls, who responded to the incident, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that two men were pronounced dead at the scene. He said dozens of people had been struck by bullets, and around a dozen others were injured while fleeing.

"This doesn’t—it’s not supposed to—happen in a small town like that. It’s something you hear on the news in bigger cities," Walls told the paper.

"And even in bigger cities, you don’t hear that kind of a number," he said, referencing the number of those injured.

The party was being held to celebrate a local high school football team’s victory at a homecoming game on Friday night, the AJC reported.

Peavy said that a number of officers had been on duty over the weekend to ensure celebrations were safe, and that Friday night had gone smoothly.

"Last night was a different story. We’re still working through the investigation to see what went wrong. But a large party with people from different places, not just your locals, sometimes problems come," he said on Sunday.

The Dooly County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are working together to investigate the incident. Authorities said they do not believe there is any ongoing threat to the public at this time.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick, Tobias Meyjes and Tony Phillips.