City leaders say Diamond Lakes Park is safe, following shooting that sent teenager to hospital
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – NewsChannel 6 is continuing to follow a shooting that happened Monday at Diamond Lakes Park.
District 4 Commissioner Alvin Mason–whose district includes the park–says the shooting is upsetting, considering it happened at a place where hundreds of people gather on any given day.
“My heart is actually sickened behind the events,” said Mason. “Certainly my heart goes out to the individual that was hurt in this process, but it’s very disheartening for us, and it’s very disheartening for this community.”
Investigators from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office were called to the park around 2:00 PM on Monday afternoon in reference to shots fired.
When they arrived, they found a 17-year-old victim, who was shot one time in the right leg.
That victim was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Mason has lived in the area for the past decade, and says these types of situations are a rarity for a park and area he is working to improve.
“I’m trying to bring commercial and retail development to this community, to include things like restaurants and those sorts of things. The businesses are looking at what type of community we have, what’s the crime rate, and those sorts of things. This puts a black eye on those types of things I’m trying to do for this community,” said Mason.
According to the District 4 Commissioner, there were several students taking part in a “Senior Skip Day”, which led to the shooting.
“I don’t think that in itself is the problem, but when you do these types of things and you have multiple people gathering, it has the potential for bad things to happen,” said Mason.
Some long-time park-goers like Barbara Burston were surprised by the shooting.
“I’ve been coming to this park for about 20 years, and I have seen this park grow–this is a beautiful park and it’s a peaceful park,” said Burston. “Every once in a while, you’ll hear things, but to hear that–you know, the shooting and stuff–that was very serious and sad.”
Burston says as a parent herself, situations like this show the importance of teaching young people how to handle situations without violence.
“You’re going to have disagreements and be in conflict with one another: but they need to learn how to have self-control,” said Burston. “Picking up a gun should not be your first way to solve a problem. We need to learn how handle our emotions the right way, so that way you don’t take someone’s life.”
Commissioner Mason says that accountability must be taken on all parts to prevent situations like this from happening in the future–but wants to ensure the public that the park is safe.
“It is a safe park. And what we’ll do if need be–and it may be necessary for us to do–is to have more police presence in the park. It’s certainly something that I’ll be talking to the rest of the commission about, and our administrator,” said Mason.
Mason encourages anyone who has information on this case to contact the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
No arrests have been made at this time by the Sheriff’s Office.
This remains an ongoing investigation.
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