Vidalia Police looking for suspect in weekend gang shooting

VIDALIA, Ga. (WSAV) — The GBI is helping the Vidalia Police investigate a shooting that killed a man Saturday night.

It happened around the same area as a double homicide that happened in March.

Officers responded to reports of gunshots off of the 500 block of Jenkins Street. 28-year-old Quashaun Chillious, from Mount Vernon, was taken to the hospital. They were not able to save him from his injuries.

“I’m tired of having to go to mothers and tell mothers ‘Thoughts and prayers.’ To me that’s starting to get real old,” said police chief James Jermon.

It happened across the railroad tracks in Vidalia.

It’s just one block from where two people were killed less than a month ago in broad daylight.

Police believe Saturday’s shooting was gang-related.

“With all the people that was said to be out there you would have thought someone would have seen something,” said Jermon.

He says without witnesses coming forward, they’re forced to investigate the hard way – looking for clues at the crime scene.

“Give us something,” said Jermon. “Ultimately that is their neighborhood and if they want a safer neighborhood, then sometime someone has to stand up and say, ‘Well, I will.'”

Our team went to the neighborhood to talk to pastor Frank Williams with Mt. Zion Church – smack-dab in the middle of the neighborhood. Williams says kids in the area don’t have much to do which can sometimes lead them to trouble.

“They’re really really good kids i just think that they need some more parenting,” said Williams. “They need to be counseled a little more instead of folks riding by waving at them I think people just need to stop.”

A resident News 3 spoke to off camera said she was thinking of moving, fearful of stray bullets coming into her house. The police chief says they’re patrolling and trying to clean up the neighborhood.

“It’s going to be a model, a model area at some point I can promise you,” said Jermon.

Vidalia police need eyewitnesses to put together the pieces of what the chief says is a big jigsaw puzzle. He says they’ll investigate any tip even if it’s anonymous.