Shootings at store draw a call for action from Augusta leaders
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - An Augusta Commission member wants to deal with a convenience store that seems to be a magnet for gunfire and murders.
Catherine Smith McKnight wants to consider beefing up security or closing down the Smart Grocery at 3221 Wrightsboro Road due to the number of shootings happening around there.
It’s a matter she brought up at Tuesday’s meeting of the commission.
“We’ve got to do something to protect these areas, and to get some of these, I’m sorry to say it, thugs out of there,” she said.
She says it’s an issue the store owner has communicated to her could be about much needed staffing of officers in the area.
“It’s causing problems for people there that don’t want to get gas there because of what’s going on. I don’t blame them, I don’t blame the owner, it’s not the owner’s fault,” said McKnight.
The store has been the site of at least nine shootings in recent years, at least two of them fatal, including one on Dec. 11 claimed the life of Jeremiah Griffin, 32, of the 300 block of Fox Trace.
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McKnight’s matter is being moved to the next committee meeting of the commission so the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and the store owner can speak.
Through McKnight’s communication with her district, she told News 12 it could be an issue of staffing deputies around the area, and that the owner has reached out to the sheriff’s agency for an added officer that he would pay for.
Another store in the Glendale neighborhood near the Olive Road bridge will also be discussed due to the number of shootings that also happen around there.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson said: “I have received a number of concerns from neighbors about the conditions of this gas station. There’s shoot outs happening there, there’s apparent drug exchanges and we don’t want that kind of activity in front of subdivisions where folks are just trying to live and just enjoy life.”
Smart Grocery has had a high profile in the news for all the wrong reasons.
It doesn’t help that it’s near some apartment complexes that have been trouble spots for crime, including the one where Griffin lived.
In fact, one of the complexes – formerly known as Fox Den – had such a problem with drugs and other crime that the owner set up a mobile security tower with bright lights, cameras and a siren.
At least some of the violence from the apartments has spilled over to Smart Grocery in recent years, leading Smith McKnight to wonder at what point it becomes a public safety problem.
Smart Grocery and its immediate surroundings have been the site of several gun incidents in recent years. Among those incidents:
- In July, one person was sent to a hospital after another shooting at the store.
- In January 2023, a man was shot with his own gun in the 3200 block of Wrightsboro Road after an unknown person grabbed his pistol from his pocket and shot him with it as he tried to break up a fight.
- In September 2022, Zayquantez Jones, 17, was killed in a shooting at the store.
- In December 2021, two motorists fired gunshots at each other near the store before driving off in separate directions. One person was arrested.
- On Nov. 23, 2021, a man pointed a gun at a woman in the parking lot of the store as part of an apparent road-rage incident.
- In April 2021, a man was found in the parking lot of the store, injured after being shot at least twice.
- In March 2020, a shooting there wounded a bystander after a verbal altercation in the parking lot. Marcia Laquette Wimbley, 28, of Augusta, was taken into custody
- In November 2018, a victim was found in the parking lot of the store with at least two gunshot wounds in their mid-section.
- In May 2017, a man suffered wounds to a hand and thigh in a shooting at the store. The injuries were not life-threatening.
Last year, commissioners vowed to bring more funding to fight crime in the area.
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