Athens teens are first to be indicted locally under new drive-by shooting law
- Classic City News
- Jan 17, 2025
- 1 min read
By Joe Johnson
A pair of Athens teens have become the first defendants to be indicted in the Western Judicial Circuit under the new state drive-by shooting law.
A Clarke County grand jury returned the indictment charging Jabarris Lamar Brown Jr. and Santonieyo Eugene Cooper for a Nov. 10 shooting in which up to 20 rounds were fired from a moving vehicle at an occupied home on Nellie B Avenue. Some of the rounds narrowly missed a woman, striking a wall next to where she stood.
A Chevrolet Tahoe parked at the residence was also shot up.
Both 19, Cooper and Brown were charged in the indictment with drive-by shooting, and four counts of aggravated assault.
Brown was additionally charged with making terroristic threats for a phone call in which he threatened to murder the victim by saying “I will have those younguns terrify y’all every chance they get,” and “I will put a whole 30-round clip in (you).”
The drive-by shooting law went into effect in July, and the penalty for conviction is a minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum of 20.
A judge denied bail to the defendants, having deemed them to be a risk to the community’s safety.
They are scheduled to be arraigned on March 3.
