Pharoah Devonell Williams has been arrested for shooting seven people in Georgia early Sunday morning. Wilkes County Police didn’t have to search too hard to find their attempted murder suspect. He came walking in to their station and surrendered.
Shooting suspect arrested
On Monday, September 6, Pharoah Williams walked into the Wilkes County Sheriff’s department and said “I heard you were looking for me.” Or, words to that effect. He was immediately arrested.
His face, garnished with a wild fro, had been plastered all over TV and he couldn’t wait to get that embarrassing image off the screen. The 21-year-old deserves credit for standing up to take responsibility for his actions. Thankfully, nobody was killed.
Public information officer Shaun Barnett confirms Williams was arrested by authorities peacefully, after injuring seven people by opening fire into a crowd. There was also a fight going on at the time which had something to do with the shooting. Details haven’t been released yet.
The whole thing happened in Athens, Georgia after a college football victory. University of Georgia beat Clemson Saturday night in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Students and fans filled the streets” of downtown Athens to celebrate.
Officers responded to a shooting in the area of East Clayton Street and North Jackson Street just before 2 a.m. Sunday.
According to police, a “large fight had broken out and during the fight, ‘a male suspect began discharging a firearm into the crowd that was fighting.'” Nobody else was arrested in the incident. All the injured “were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.”
Suspect identified
It didn’t take long for police to identify Williams as the shooting suspect and they instantly issued several warrants to have him arrested. Knowing that hiding would only make things worse, Williams came in on his own.
They’re holding him on $10,000 bond for “one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies,and seven counts of aggravated assault.” He’s expecting transfer to Athens-Clarke County Jail.
Residents are still shaken up about what happened, even though the suspect was eventually arrested. Libby Arnold “was there when it happened” and has “never been through anything like that” in her life, she relates. “It was a terrible night. We didn’t ask for that.”
It was supposed to be a party. She almost watched three family members murdered because they walked out the door of a restaurant at just the right time. “The bullet ricocheted off my son’s side. “It ricocheted from my nephew in his inner thigh and then hit my daughter’s best friend.” Her “son, nephew and family friend were three of the seven people who police say were injured.”
The police were anxious to get somebody arrested. “We don’t feel like this was a random act where the general public is at risk,” police note. “We think he was involved with the parties that were involved in the altercation.”
Everybody agrees it could have been much, much worse. “We are all just lucky,” Ms. Arnold declares. Business owners have been told there will be an increase of security “everywhere, so families feel safe.”