Two men have been charged in connection with a shooting at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle earlier this week.
Gavin Fields, 23, and Dustin Pope, 20, both of Artesia, were arrested early Friday morning in a joint operation with Artesia Marshal Reginald Adams, Columbus Police Chief Joseph Daughtry announced at a Friday morning press conference.
The two men – who are brothers – are accused of a Monday shooting in the parking lot at BMH-GT that wounded four people and locked down the hospital for about an hour. Both are charged with six counts of aggravated assault and one count of shooting into an occupied vehicle, Daughtry said.
“If you are becoming a terror in this community and you’re opening fire in this city, if we’re able to, we’re going to put you in jail,” Daughtry said. “The (district attorney) has committed to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”
District Attorney Scott Colom said his office will not tolerate gun violence, especially in public places. In this case, while officials did not give specifics, Colom said the shooters were retaliating against the victims in reference to an ongoing dispute.
“Somebody ran into somebody else and took advantage of an opportunity to retaliate,” Colom said. “That not only is dangerous for the people you’re retaliating against, but it’s dangerous for the public.”
Colom said he appreciated the fact that CPD didn’t rush to make an arrest.
“Instead of rushing to arrest whoever, they took a step back and said let’s look at the full picture and make sure we get the right people and have the strongest evidence,” Colom said. “To get convictions you have to have the evidence to convict people beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Colom said Lowndes County Victim Impact Coordinator Janie Shields was a huge help in the investigation.
“When you work these cases you have to have victim cooperation to have the strongest case possible,” Colom said. “It’s not easy to get young people to cooperate all the time. We had great cooperation and that’s going to put us in a very strong position.”
Colom appealed to the public to report violent incidents to law enforcement.
“A lot of times these things escalate,” Colom said. “Nobody wants to talk, then it escalates more, nobody wants to talk, and then it results in something like this. Even if you don’t want to give an official statement, give it to the police confidentially.”
Daughtry said two of the four victims had been released, but the two who had been airlifted out were still in the hospital.
The shooters were not among the wounded from the incident, Daughtry said. Several people were detained for questioning on the scene but were not arrested.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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