As of about 12:50 a.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) says a shooting at a neighborhood block party in Vienna, Georgia, left two people dead and 35 injured. None of the sources we read names a suspect or a motive.
What GBI says happened
The GBI is investigating at the request of the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO), which asked it to assist. In its release, the GBI said “preliminary information indicates” that at about 1:25 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, DCSO deputies were “on patrol at a neighborhood block party when shots were fired from the 900 block of Pine Street” in Vienna.
According to the GBI, deputies responded immediately and found that multiple people had been shot. Deputies also found two people in the 600 block of Pine Street who were pronounced dead at the scene. Victims were taken to several regional hospitals for treatment. CBS News, relaying the investigators’ account, wrote that the two who died “had been found several blocks away from the location on Pine Street where investigators said the shooting originated.” This article uses the GBI’s block numbers.
The GBI said the two people who died will go to the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies.
Who died
In an update on Oct. 4, the GBI identified the two people who died as:
- Ja’Quavion Aderious Jackson, 21, of Cordele, Georgia
- Macaleb Malik Jackson, 23, of Hawkinsville, Georgia
WALB reported that coroner Brett Walls confirmed the same names. The ages are reported differently elsewhere. CBS News reported that Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls told CBS News the two men were “ages 20 and 23,” and U.S. Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr., in a statement carried by WALB, said “Two young men, just 20 and 23 years old, will not come home again.” This article prints the ages as the GBI gave them in its own update, 21 and 23.
How many were hurt
The GBI release says the shooting left “35 people injured.” In its Oct. 4 update, the GBI said: “The condition of the 35 injured victims range from stable to critical.” The GBI release does not say how many of the 35 were shot.
The sources we read describe the 35 differently:
- The GBI says “injured,” with no split.
- The Crisp County Sheriff’s Office told WALB, in WALB’s reporting: “there were 25 people shot, 10 others were injured.” That is a figure WALB attributes to the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office, not a GBI figure. Crisp Regional Hospital, about nine miles from the scene, treated many of the patients.
- CBS News reported: “Twenty-five of those injured were hospitalized, officials told local media.” That is CBS’s own sentence about people hospitalized, not a count of people shot.
- Dooly County Sheriff Craig Peavy told CBS affiliate WMAZ, as relayed by CBS, that some people were hit by cars as drivers scrambled to leave the area.
We do not decide between these descriptions, and we do not say that one figure explains another.
Crowd and shots, according to the sheriff
CBS News reported that Peavy told WMAZ more than 1,000 people had gathered along Pine Street for the block party, which was held to celebrate homecoming. According to CBS relaying WMAZ, Peavy said at least 50 shots were fired in total, at two different locations about one block apart. These figures come from CBS’s account of the sheriff’s remarks to WMAZ. They are not in the GBI release, and we did not open the WMAZ report itself.
Hospital response
Crisp Regional Hospital, a Level III Trauma Center about nine miles from the scene, told WALB it began receiving patients not long after 2 a.m. As of 2 p.m. Sunday, 26 patients who were injured in the shooting remained at Crisp Regional, two others had been transferred to other facilities, and another two required emergency surgery, according to WALB’s report of the hospital’s account. WALB also reported that additional people may have received care at other hospitals. The CBS figure (“Twenty-five of those injured were hospitalized,” in a report updated at 8:54 p.m. EDT on Oct. 4) and the WALB hospital figures (as of 2 p.m. Sunday) come from different reports at different times, and we do not reconcile them.
What investigators have and have not said
What the sources we read say:
- The GBI is investigating at the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office’s request.
- The GBI says the shots were fired from the 900 block of Pine Street, and the two people who died were found in the 600 block of Pine Street.
- The GBI says: “Once the investigation is complete, the case file will be given to the Cordele Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review and prosecution.”
What the sources we read do not say:
- No suspect or arrest has been announced in the sources we read. CBS News wrote that authorities have not released information about a possible suspect or potential motive.
- No source we read states how many people fired.
- The GBI release does not give the number of people shot, the size of the crowd or who organized the party.
- The GBI describes deputies as “on patrol at a neighborhood block party.” In a separate WALB story citing Vienna Councilwoman Tabitha Carter, WALB’s own sentence says deputies “were working a Homecoming block party.” The sources we read do not resolve the difference in wording.
The GBI update and WALB pages we read do not include what was said at the 7 p.m. Oct. 4 news conference at the Dooly County Courthouse.
How to give a tip and the reward
The GBI is asking anyone with information to contact:
- The GBI Regional Investigative Office in Perry at (478) 987-4545
- 1-800-597-TIPS (8477)
- The GBI’s online form at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online
- The See Something, Send Something app
Separately, the Youth Peace & Justice Foundation, also called the Uvalde Foundation for Kids, is offering up to $5,000 for information that helps law enforcement make an arrest and/or get a conviction, according to WALB. WALB identified Daniel Chaplin as the foundation’s founder and president.
The local question about policing
WALB reported: “Some people are expressing frustrations with leadership from the mayor and police response in the wake of the shooting.” WALB did not name them or give detail.
Separately, WALB reported that Carter said the city does not have its own police department and that, for months, the council has heard concerns from the sheriff’s office about being overwhelmed covering both the city and the county. Carter said, in WALB’s quotation: “We’ve been trying to get a police department, a police chief in place for ever since February 9th to no avail,” and, separately, “And the sheriff department is short-staffed. And they’ve stressed this many, many times.”
In its own voice, WALB reported that a couple of months before the shooting, Dooly County first responders traveled to neighboring Crisp County to train for an active shooter or mass casualty event, in an exercise that brought together multiple agencies.
WALB also reported that Carter said she believes the sheriff’s office did what it could and responded in a timely manner, and that she believes a city police department would have helped. Those are her opinions as a council member. None of the pages we read reports a finding by any agency about how the response was staffed or whether a city police department would have changed it. Carter said she hopes to meet with the mayor and fellow council members this week to start working on a solution.
Related coverage
About 100 people gathered at the courthouse for a prayer vigil on Sunday morning, WALB reported. WALB also carried a statement from Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, that referred to the Vienna shooting as coming “just days after the horrific mass shooting at Carolyn Crayton Park in Macon.” That was a separate incident; no source we read links the two.