Vienna Homecoming Shooting: 17-Year-Old Arrested as Georgia Logs a Third Straight Weekend of Mass Gun Violence

The short version: A 17-year-old is in custody in connection with the homecoming block party shooting in Vienna, Georgia, that killed two men and injured 35 others early Sunday morning. Khadarius "KD" Ray was arrested Friday by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Dooly County Sheriff's Office on gun and gang charges — the first arrest in a case where more are expected, FOX 5 Atlanta and Now Georgia reported. And Vienna wasn't even the only horror show in Georgia this weekend: five people were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in Coffee County on Friday night, capping a third straight weekend of mass gun violence across the state.

The first arrest in Vienna

Ray, 17, of Dooly County, was charged with one count of possession of a handgun by a person under 18 and one count of participating in criminal street gang activity, authorities announced Friday. What investigators did not say is the part everyone wants to know: whether Ray is suspected of firing the shots that killed anyone, or how many shooters opened fire that night. The GBI said additional arrests are expected, and no motive has been released.

Anyone with information or video from the block party is being asked to contact the GBI's Perry office at 478-987-4545 or the statewide tip line at 1-800-597-TIPS. Anonymous tips can also be submitted online.

What happened in Vienna

Vienna is a city of about 3,000 people in Dooly County, roughly 50 miles south of Macon. Early Sunday morning, more than 1,000 people had gathered near West Palm and the Dooly County Recreation Department gym for a sprawling, unpermitted block party celebrating a Dooly County High School homecoming football win. Deputies were stationed nearby managing traffic. Around 1:25 a.m., gunfire erupted — more than 50 shots across a four-block span, according to Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy.

Two men were found dead: 21-year-old Ja'Quavion Aderious Jackson of Cordele and 23-year-old Macaleb Malik Jackson of Hawkinsville. The two men do not appear to be related, GBI spokesperson Sara Lue said. Another 35 people were hurt — most by gunfire, others struck by vehicles as the crowd scrambled to flee. The injured ranged in age from 14 to 51, and an unspecified number were hospitalized with critical injuries.

Local officials said the block party was not a school-sponsored event and did not have a city permit. Peavy said he had extra deputies working the weekend in anticipation of homecoming drawing alumni and out-of-town visitors. "At large parties with people from different places, not just your locals, sometimes problems come," Peavy said Sunday. It was, by every account, a large but peaceful celebration — until it wasn't.

A violent three weeks in Georgia

The Vienna shooting was the worst of the weekend, but it was not the only one. In Macon, 12 teenagers were injured when gunfire broke out during an 18th birthday party at Carolyn Crayton Park. Five suspects have been charged in that case, including a 15-year-old who is being charged as an adult.

Then Friday night brought a different kind of horror to Coffee County. Douglas police were called around 11:09 p.m. about shots fired and arrived to find five people dead at a home on Robin Way in the Touchton Woods neighborhood. Authorities are treating it as an apparent murder-suicide. Few details have been released — the names and ages of the dead have not been made public — and officials said more information was expected Saturday. Douglas sits about 70 miles southeast of Vienna, and roughly 180 miles southeast of Atlanta.

It is the third weekend in a row that Georgia law enforcement has reported a mass shooting or multi-victim gun incident, and the circumstances of each are different: a chaotic crowd shooting, a teen birthday party, and now what appears to be a family annihilation behind closed doors. What ties them together is the body count — and the questions.

What comes next

In Vienna, the investigation is now about building the case outward from Ray's arrest. The GBI's statement that more arrests are coming suggests investigators believe they know — or are closing in on — who else was shooting that night. But the central questions remain unanswered: how many guns were fired, what started it, and whether the teenager now in custody pulled a trigger or was simply there, armed, in the middle of it.

In Coffee County, the immediate work is quieter and grimmer: identifying the five dead, notifying families, and reconstructing what happened inside that house on Robin Way. Police have not said whether a larger gathering was taking place there before the gunfire.

For the families of Ja'Quavion Jackson and Macaleb Jackson — two young men from two small Georgia towns who went to a homecoming party and never came home — the arrests, whenever they come, will be the beginning of answers, not the end of grief. Vienna is the kind of town where everybody knows whose kid didn't come home. This weekend, everybody knows.

Previously's Georgia desk is following the Vienna investigation and the Coffee County case. This is a developing story.