Athens man injured in drive-by shooting

By Joe Johnson

A 33-year-old Fourth Street man suffered two gunshot wounds last weekend when he was the victim of a drive-by shooting in east Athens.

An officer was busy conducting a traffic stop on East Dougherty Street just after midnight on Saturday when Guentin Smith pulled up in his car and told the officer that he’d been shot.

The officer saw that Smith had two gunshot wounds to his left arm and that several rounds had struck the victim’s car.

He told police that he didn’t know the identity of the shooter

Smith was treated by EMTs who transported him to the hospital.

Police said they learned what happened by reviewing surveillance footage of the shooting captured by cameras at the Triangle Plaza shopping center, located at Vine Street and Nellie B Avenue.

The footage shows Smith arguing with a man later identified as 28-year-old KentavIs Jamal Appling of Falling Shoals Drive.

Appling

Prior to being taken away in the ambulance Smith had told police that the man he argued with had pulled alongside in his car at Vine and First streets and fired several rounds at him and sped away.

Appling’s car was later located in Oglethorpe County where it was being driven by a relative, who told police that someone had dropped the car off at his home on Falling Shoals Drive where Appling also lives.

Officers found the suspect at home and arrested him on charges of aggravated assault and drive-by shooting,