>> TRAGIC HOMICIDE
Young Damarion Byrd went to sleep in his bed Sunday night like he had numerous other times, with the anticipation of going to school the next morning and seeing his friends and teachers. But Monday morning never happened for the 10-year-old because a bullet took his life while he slept.
“Our entire community is upset as well as all of our deputy sheriffs and all the first responders,” Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said at a press conference Monday. “It’s bad when we have anything happen to anyone in our community, but …when a 10-year-old child is killed in his bed sleeping, that’s a horrible crime.”
Three suspects were arrested in the case Monday, Massey said. Rodracius Demaris Stephens, 39, of Harrisburg Road, Milledgeville, was arrested on felony murder charges. Baldwin County Sheriff’s deputies, Milledgeville Police Department officers and GBI agents took Stephens into custody around 2 p.m. Monday without incident at the Heritage Inn on North Columbia Street in Milledgeville, where Massee said Stephens “was hiding out.”
Arrested later, also on murder charges, were Charles Chavez Jackson Jr., 17, and Shamonica Kiera Reaves, 33, both of Earnest Byner Street, Milledgeville. All three are being housed in the Baldwin County Jail.
Authorities located and arrested Jerrell Antwoin Stubbs in Covington in connection with the murder after having issued a warrant for his arrest Tuesday morning. He has not yet been booked into the Baldwin County jail as of The Bulletin’s press deadline.
The shooting happened at approximately 1:30 a.m. Sunday, March 5, when 17 gunshots were fired into the singlewide mobile home on Harrisburg Road in Milledgeville where the child lived with his father. The preliminary investigation revealed that one or more people were in the area and began shooting at the home, according to a press release from the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responding to the scene discovered that Damarion had been shot while sleeping in his bed, but his father who was in another room had not been injured. The child was treated at the scene by Baldwin County Fire Rescue and Grady Emergency personnel, then taken by ambulance to Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin Hospital in Milledgeville, where he died a short time later.
Damarion was a fifth grader at Midway Hills Academy; Massee said he immediately told Baldwin County School Superintendent Dr. Norris Price of the tragedy.
“This is a very egregious crime in our community,” Massee said. “We have deputies that have young children who were dramatically affected by working this case. Everyone in our community who found out that a 10-year-old child was killed by a criminal hiding in the woods that shot into a trailer was affected. I think the entire community is upset about it.”
The veteran sheriff said it was too early in the investigation to say what the motive was, but “the home was definitely the target in this shooting,” he added. Massee acknowledged that the suspects were identified quickly through the help of people in the community, along with “other means.”
The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information should contact the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office at 478-445-5102 or the GBI Region 6 Office in Milledgeville at 478-445-4173. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https.//gbi. georgia.gov/submit-tipsonline, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.