Not every person walking around is a threat. Most people, including young adults, never hurt anybody and should be left alone.
But when someone is accused of serious violence, the justice system is supposed to sort out what happened and determine whether that person poses a continuing danger. A case out of Macon, Georgia, raises some uncomfortable questions about what happens when that process takes years.
Another Shooting, Another Arrest
The shooting at Carolyn Crayton Park happened shortly after midnight on September 27, when gunfire erupted during a large gathering near the park’s skate area.
According to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, the gathering began as an 18-year-old girl’s birthday party at an Airbnb before the group was asked to leave after the property owner learned people had firearms. The party moved to Carolyn Crayton Park, where authorities say an encounter between two groups eventually turned into an exchange of gunfire.
Twelve people between the ages of 17 and 19 were wounded. Two were initially listed in critical but stable condition.
Investigators have since arrested five people in connection with the shooting, including David Vincent Pitts, 24, and Jaquez Bailey, 20.
Pitts faces 12 counts of aggravated assault as a party to a crime. Bailey faces 12 counts of aggravated assault. Authorities subsequently arrested 17-year-old Lantonio Hill, 19-year-old Justin Green, and 15-year-old Ahmad Lundy, who also face aggravated assault charges. Green was additionally charged with violating probation.
Pitts and Bailey are being held without bond in the new case.
But Pitts wasn’t new to the Bibb County criminal justice system.
Pitts Was Already Out on Bond
In July 2023, Pitts was arrested in connection with another shooting, this one at the Baymont Inn & Suites on Riverside Drive in Macon.
That shooting wounded a 62-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man. Pitts was arrested July 24, 2023, and charged with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and reckless conduct.
A judge granted Pitts a $30,000 bond the following day.
The conditions weren’t complicated. According to prosecutors, Pitts was ordered not to violate Georgia law and not to possess dangerous weapons or firearms while the case was pending. He posted bond and was released from the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center on August 6, 2023.
Then the case kept going.
And going.
A Bibb County grand jury indicted Pitts on January 8, 2024, on aggravated assault and firearm charges. More than two and a half years later, that prosecution was still pending when the Carolyn Crayton Park shooting happened.
Pitts was still out on that same bond.
Three Years on Bond
That’s the part worth paying attention to.
Pitts was arrested following a double shooting in July 2023. He was released on bond less than two weeks later. He was indicted in January 2024.
Then September 2026 arrived, and the case remained unresolved.
Now authorities allege Pitts was involved in another shooting involving firearms — this time one that left 12 people wounded.
Prosecutors are consequently asking the court to revoke his 2023 bond. Their motion argues that the new allegations violate the conditions of Pitts’ release and indicate that he poses a significant danger and risk of committing another felony while awaiting trial.
His 2023 case is still open. A bond-revocation hearing is scheduled for October 8, and the trial is currently set for October 12.
Apparently, three years wasn’t enough time to get there.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty
None of this changes the presumption of innocence.
Pitts hasn’t been convicted in the Carolyn Crayton Park shooting, and the charges against him remain allegations. The same basic principle applies to the criminal justice system: an arrest doesn’t prove guilt, and being accused of a crime isn’t enough to strip someone of his rights permanently.
But due process works both ways. It doesn’t require serious violent-felony cases to sit unresolved indefinitely.
Pitts was arrested in 2023 following a shooting that wounded two people. He was released on bond, indicted the following year, and remained free while that prosecution worked its way through the system. More than three years after the original arrest, authorities now accuse him of participating in another shooting that wounded 12 people.
Whether Pitts committed either crime is ultimately for a court and jury to determine.
But Bibb County doesn’t need a jury verdict to answer another question: Why did it take more than three years to bring the first shooting case to trial?
That’s a question worth answering.
Right to a speedy trial? That will be used to get him off the 2023 charges.
Right to speedy trial is generally waived by the defendant. It’s highly likely he did here or else he would have already gone to trial.
The cops know who the criminals are, but appointed and elected judges are often pro-criminal and racist, excusing actions based on skin color, and never caring about the victims aside from mealy mouthed words.
Minneapolis elected a public defender as top prosecutor and it isn’t even revolving door justice- it’s like chutes and ladders.
It does not get anywhere near the attention it deserves. Purposely failing inner-city schools that keep entire populations in ignorance. Law enforcement practices and prosecution practices that ensure there will be a never-ending flow of criminals to justify their existence. And local governments racking in millions to aid in homelessness, poverty, and generational welfare schemes to launder money for socialist causes and to line the pockets of corrupt and evil people. I firmly believe it can all be documented and exposed if all we had were real journalists and real federal investigators looking for the racketeering (and often blatant racism) that is obviously there. All of this can be ended. It desperately needs to be ended.
Just for NY a quick look at medicaid, benefits paid to illegal aliens (see especially favorable college tuition), and SNAP abuse could readily collapse a lot of things. This is before we begin to touch on handing drivers licenses (including CDK) out like candy to illegals which automatically registers them to vote.
But to do any of that is to be “racist”. Yeah cleaning up metro corruption at multiple levels is going to be interesting but the ones that do it will probably determine a lot going forward.
100% CORRECT IN EVERY DETAIL!