DALTON — A 16-year-old is in custody facing four counts of felony murder in connection with the shooting death of four people at a Dalton area park.
The arrest was announced by Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood at a news conference Sunday afternoon.
Deputies were dispatched to Pleasant Grove Park at 11:14 p.m. Saturday on a report of shots fired, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. When deputies arrived at the scene, they found four males dead, the release stated.
The 16-year-old in custody, whose name was being withheld by authorities, is from Rome, Georgia.
The deceased included two males from Dalton, ages 21 and 19, and two more from Rome, ages 18 and 17, Chitwood said. The names of the deceased would not be released until their families were contacted, he said.
“We have reason to believe that the motive was a robbery,” Chitwood said. “There was some contraband found in the vehicle at the scene.”
There were multiple firearms involved, he said, and multiple shell casings found at the scene.
Sheriff’s deputies and agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are trying to sort out who were the robbers and who were the victims, Chitwood said.
“This is a very complicated case, with a lot of pieces to the puzzle we’re putting together still,” he said. “Questions you have are the very same questions that we have right now.”
Chitwood said there’s no reason to believe the incident is gang related. He also said there’s no reason to believe any of those involved are in the country illegally.
Both vehicles the sheriff’s office asked the public’s help to find initially, an SUV and a hatchback, were located, Chitwood said at the news conference.
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Near Pleasant Grove Park, a county facility, two residents refused to comment, one for fear of retaliation.
Two others living near the park said they would be interviewed but didn’t want to give their names, also due to concerns about possible retaliation.
The neighbor said they heard a few shots at about 10 p.m. Saturday night, and later at about 11 p.m. heard heavy gunfire that sounded like a shootout. The gunfire was frightening, they said, and the deaths saddening.
“It kills me, because that one, that 17-year-old, probably had to go to school tomorrow and just got caught up with the wrong people,” one of the neighbors said.
There’s a lot of nighttime activity at the park, said another neighbor, but the neighborhood has generally been without crime.
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“It’s usually always safe in the day,” the second neighbor said of the park. “But after it gets dark, it’s not been anything like what happened last night, but you’ll see a couple of cars congregate for a little while, then peel out and go their own way.”
The second neighbor said the park needs better lighting, law enforcement patrols and the gate to its parking lot should also be closed at night to avoid any other problems in the future.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the sheriff’s office tip line at 706-278-1233 or the GBI tip line at 800-597-8477.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.