VIENNA, Georgia — Eight more people were charged on Thursday, November 5, in the homecoming-weekend block-party shooting that killed two young men and injured 44 people in this small south Georgia town — the largest single round of arrests yet in a month-long investigation that has now put 10 people under charge, with two of the newly charged men still on the run and described by investigators as armed and dangerous.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Dooly County Sheriff's Office announced the new charges in an update issued on November 5. Six of the eight were arrested and booked into jails across three counties; two others — a 19-year-old from Cordele and a 34-year-old from Perry — have been charged but were not in custody when the update was issued. The GBI warned the public not to approach either man and to call 911 on sight. All of the charges are allegations: none of the defendants has been convicted, and each is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Who was charged on Thursday
Arrested and charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, participation in criminal street gang activity and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony were Latravis Keonta Bentley, 19, of Vienna; Ty'Darrious Ty'Jai Dawson, 19, of Cordele; Devontre Jaquon Holton, 23, of Cordele; and Demari Jaheem Nixon, 23, of Cordele, the GBI said. Two younger defendants, aged 17 and 16, face the same felony-murder charge sheet; the 16-year-old is charged with possession of a firearm under the age of 21 instead of possession during a felony. Holton and Nixon were booked into the Crisp County Jail, Dawson into the Dooly County Jail and Bentley into the Houston County Jail.
Source: Georgia Bureau of Investigation — November 5, 2026 update
Still wanted on the same charges are Brexton Esamuel Gaston, 19, of Cordele, and Vanravious Rashad Williams, 34, of Perry, who is charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and gang participation. The November 5 round follows two earlier arrest waves: on October 14, investigators arrested Kelcey Smith, 36, and Johntavirous Robinson, 40, both of Cordele, on gang-activity, felon-in-possession and evidence-tampering charges, and on October 9 a 17-year-old from Dooly County was charged with underage handgun possession and gang participation. The GBI says the total charged in connection with the shooting now stands at 10.
What happened on October 4
The shooting erupted at about 1:25 a.m. on Sunday, October 4, 2026, during a neighbourhood block party on Pine Street in Vienna held over homecoming weekend for Dooly County High School, according to the GBI's original release. Dooly County deputies were already on patrol at the gathering when shots were fired from the 900 block of Pine Street. Deputies found multiple people shot and two men dead in the 600 block of Pine Street. The Associated Press, reporting that weekend, put the crowd at more than 1,000 people across a four-block area and said Sheriff Craig Peavy counted more than 50 shots fired in at least two locations about a block apart.
Source: Associated Press — reporting on the October 4 Vienna shooting (via Compuserve)
The two men killed were Ja'Quavion Aderious Jackson, 21, of Cordele, and Macaleb Malik Jackson, 23, of Hawkinsville, identified by the GBI; Sheriff Peavy said at the time that he did not say whether the two were related. The injured ranged in age from 14 to 51 and were taken to several regional hospitals, some in critical condition, the AP reported. Dooly County Coroner Brett Walls pronounced both men dead at the scene. In its November 5 update, the GBI fixed the final injury count at 44: 28 people with gunshot wounds, including the two who died, and 16 people hurt in other ways during the incident — a toll that rose from the 35 injured first reported that night.
A case built by a dozen agencies
The investigation behind Thursday's charges was one of the largest joint efforts in recent Georgia memory. The GBI said its Perry Regional Investigative Office led the case with help from the Georgia Information Sharing and Analysis Center, its Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit and numerous regional, gang-task-force and drug-enforcement offices. Assisting agencies listed by the GBI include the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Georgia Attorney General's Office, the Georgia State Patrol, the Cordele Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office, the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia and sheriff's offices in Dooly, Crisp, Houston and Turner counties, among others.
Georgia's felony-murder rule allows prosecutors to charge a participant in a dangerous felony — here, alleged gang activity and aggravated assault — with murder when a death occurs during that felony, even if that defendant is not accused of firing the fatal shot. It is the charge that ties all eight of Thursday's defendants to the two deaths, and it will be the central legal battleground as the case moves toward indictment and trial.
What happens next
The two wanted men remain at large, and the GBI says the investigation is active and ongoing, with the file ultimately going to the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia for review and prosecution. Anyone with information is asked to contact the GBI Regional Investigative Office in Perry at (478) 987-4545; anonymous tips can go to 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online through the GBI, or via the See Something, Send Something app. For Vienna — a town of roughly 3,000 people on the Interstate 75 corridor between Macon and Valdosta — Thursday's arrests close the first month of a case that began as the deadliest night in the county's recent history, but with two suspects still being hunted and court proceedings yet to begin, they do not close the story.