Shooting at Augusta motel kills South Carolina man
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - In the latest incident in an outbreak of winter violence in the CSRA, a man was fatally shot at a motel on the edge of downtown Augusta, authorities said.
Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen said Daytron Merriweather, 29, of Johnston, S.C., was shot at least one time and transported to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:38 p.m. Thursday.
Crime scene tape cordoned off much of the Budgetel at 954 Fifth St. early Friday as Richmond County deputies investigated the shooting that was reported at 11:12 p.m. Thursday.
Two gunshot victims were taken to a hospital — Merriweather and a 23-year-old man who had been shot two times, according to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
Bowen said Merriweather later died. An autopsy was scheduled with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab.
Patrol cars with flashing blue lights lined the street in front of the motel. Yellow tape blocked the two-story buildings where guest rooms were located just beyond a carport outside the lobby.
The shooting comes just a couple of days after two other injury shootings in Augusta.
On Tuesday night, a 46-year-old woman was injured in the upper chest in a drive-by shooting at 2224 Grand Blvd.
They were among a string of mostly nonfatal and apparently unrelated shootings across the CSRA:
- On Jan. 29, a juvenile was injured in a shooting at the Brickyard Village Apartments, 125 Springfield St. in Thomson.
- On Jan. 28, a 71-year-old man was injured in a shooting in the 500 block of Chesterfield Street, near Hampton Avenue, in Aiken. A suspect was arrested.
- Just before 3 p.m. Jan. 26, a pregnant woman was shot in front of her home on Drayton Drive in Augusta. She gave birth after the shooting, and she and the baby were doing fine.
- On the morning of Jan. 25, two men were shot in an apparent road rage incident along Interstate 20 near Grovetown. One victim was stable and the other was critical after they were transported to Doctors Hospital. A truck driver was arrested.
- Also on Jan. 25, a male victim was shot around 4 p.m. in the 500 block of Boy Scout Road in Augusta. The victim was conscious, but was unable to provide a description of the person who shot him.
- On the night of Jan. 23, deputies responded to a shooting in the 1600 block of Olive Road in Augusta, where a male victim inside a vehicle had been shot in the leg. Authorities are looking for a suspect.
- On Jan. 22, a male was wounded in the leg in a shooting 10th Avenue in Augusta.
- On the night of Jan. 21, a shooting on Etterlee Road left 50-year-old Jerry L. Harden dead. The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office has charged Alec Hadden with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
And while no one was actually shot, a robbery at gunpoint in North Augusta has many residents concerned. The robbery happened Tuesday on the Greeneway trail, where two victims were approached by a gunman who demanded their phones and other valuables.
North Augusta police say such an incident is rare in the community and they’re telling people not to let the incident stop them from getting out on the Greeneway.
News 12′s Steve Byerly, Evan Kean and Timothy Hickle contributed to this report.
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