Shooting of deputy raises concerns among Augusta’s homeless

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The shooting of a Richmond County deputy by a homeless man has raised concerns among the homeless population that there may be repercussions for them.

Deputy Kenneth Mercer remained in a hospital Monday after being injured while responding Saturday to a report of someone with a gun downtown. Officers exchanged fire with Duterval Sejour, 36.

Sejour was killed, while Mercer was wounded.

Augusta leaders said Monday there’s an imbalance of resources available to those in need.

While they’re asking for more of the community’s ideas and help, some are looking toward stricter options for monitoring the growing homeless community.

“I just think that we all need to embrace this community because right now it’s a difficult time,” Augusta Commission member Sean Frantom said.

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While the entire homeless community isn’t represented by this recent shooting, some commissioners are looking for more security keeping a watchful eye.

Frantom is looking expand the panhandling ordinance to monitor highly congested intersections for homeless traffic.

“I just think that it’s a bigger discussion of wraparound services, that we need to have with Salvation Army at the table, the task force at the table,” he said. “People need to embrace them as well, but we also have to hold them able.”

He says there’s an imbalance with a lack of Richmond County officers available to handle the workload being put on their shoulders, like this past weekend.

From a conversation with Sheriff Richard Roundtree in the past month, Augusta Commission member Catherine Smith McKnight says understaffing is hitting hard.

But she also says there’s a problem.

“It has increased since COVID, and Augusta should not be the place to drop homeless people off and say, ‘Oh, Augusta’s the place,’” she said.

Bethany Trapp, who serves as the program coordinator at the Marion E. Barnes Career Center, says the homeless need our help.

They’re a very misunderstood part of Augusta, and so many of us are a paycheck away from the same fate,” she said.

She said the homeless community is scared right now because of how people treat them. So they worry what sort of rules may come to further marginalize them, after the shooting.

Elsewhere in Augusta

Even as the shooting was discussed Monday, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office was organizing a meeting with business owners about the homeless population on the other side of town.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the agency will hold a town hall meeting with business owners in the area as part of an effort to start a “proactive strategy” for the area of Interstate 20 and Washington Road.

“We will be hosting an open discussion and welcoming from business owners ... in response to their expressed concerns involving homeless issues affecting crime in this commercial strip,” the agency said in an invitation to business owners.

The meeting will be at the Warren Road Community Center, 300 Warren Road.

It’s an outgrowth of the Property Owner Response Team, a public/private collaboration to address crime in certain areas.

Among the objectives is to get permission from property owners for deputies to remove unauthorized property and temporary structures and remove people from parking areas where they have no business. The agency said it intends to get help from courts to address the constitutional rights of the property owner as well as anyone removed.

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