AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Residents of an Augusta apartment complex are now speaking out about the ongoing violence in the area. The latest shooting killed 8-year-old Arbrie Anthony.
“I go to the grocery store and I be blessed to make it back home,” said Frank Clay.
“It’s always something going on and it’s gone from the grown people acting a fool to you’ve got kids carrying guns,” said Marie Brown.
“A lot of people done got kilt out here shot and everything,” said Robins Atkins.
Dogwood Terrace residents say crime in the area has reached new heights — but say it wasn’t always like that.
“When it was Southside, everything was sweet,” said Clay, who has lived in the area for more than 20 years.
He says he remembers when the Southside was a good place to be.
“I was raised over than on Grand Blvd. and we use to come over here and play ball. Have a good time. Now everybody coming in from this place, that place, and it just started changing,” said Clay.
Atkins says she also noticed the change.
“It’s got a lot to do with these young boys,” she said.
Atkins moved in in 1982. She says in the last 40 years, the area has gone downhill and it might be time to just start over.
“I just don’t know. I think they just need to go ahead and tear Southside down and just regroup us somewhere else. I don’t know where we might go, I don’t know, but I think Southside need to be torn down.”
Brown took WJBF through her home where she has cameras mounted on several doors and windows.
“I have them, as you can see, on all of the doors. I do not feel safe,” she said.
Brown has been living in Dogwood for four years now and she points to a lack of police presence for the routine crime in this area.
“Don’t just come out here watching these cameras when something bad happens. You need to have officers or off-duty patrol somebody out here watching all the time,” she said.
WJBF did reach out to the Richmond County Sheriff’s office for any updates on the Arbrie case, but they have not responded. At last check, they are still advising anyone with information to call the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.