Relatives, neighbors and local leaders spoke out as investigators searched for the gunman in Liberty County.
MIDWAY, Ga. — A burst of gunfire early Sunday left four teenagers wounded in Liberty County, jolting families awake with panicked phone calls and turning a normally quiet Midway area into an active crime scene before dawn.
The shooting happened shortly after 12:30 a.m. at an establishment in the 400 block of Bill Carter Road, where sheriff’s investigators later worked the scene for hours and searched for the person, or people, responsible. Authorities said the victims were 16 and 17 years old, a detail that quickly deepened the reaction across the county. Three teens were reported with injuries that were not life-threatening, while a fourth remained in critical condition after a gunshot wound to the chest. As officials tried to reconstruct the violence, families and community leaders were left coping with the immediate fear, uncertainty and anger that followed.
For one family, the story arrived not as a headline but as a terrifying call in the dark. Dasean Leonard said his brother was among those wounded and had been shot in the shoulder. He said the teenager is expected to recover, but the hours after the shooting were filled with fear because family members did not yet know the full picture. “It was scary, it was real scary, and I was panicking, because I didn’t know what was going on,” Leonard said. He described his brother as a student-athlete who plays both basketball and football and usually surrounds himself with what Leonard called positive-minded people and role models. Leonard said that background made the shooting even harder to understand, and he said he believes his brother was caught in violence he did not seek out.
Authorities said the teens were taken to Liberty Regional Medical Center in Hinesville and Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah. At Liberty Regional, deputies found a vehicle in the parking lot riddled with bullet holes, with a shattered passenger window and a missing rear driver-side tire. Investigators had not confirmed by Sunday whether the vehicle had carried one of the victims from Midway to the hospital, but the image of the damaged car became one of the clearest signs of how chaotic the night had been. Maj. Josh Heath of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office said the known injuries included wounds to the chest, shoulder, back and foot. Detectives continued collecting shell casings at the original scene hours later, suggesting the investigation was still in its earliest stage and that basic facts, including the number of shooters, remained unsettled.
That lack of certainty fed community unease. Neighbors described the area as generally safe and quiet, making the violence feel abrupt and deeply personal. In remarks shared after the shooting, Midway Mayor Malcolm X. Williams said he was speaking not only as mayor but also as a father and grandfather. He said he was praying for the families and called on the community to reject the idea that this kind of bloodshed is just part of daily life. The statement was notable because it framed the incident as more than a criminal investigation. It cast the shooting as a test for a county now forced to confront youth gun violence in familiar places, among local families, at an hour when many parents were asleep and unaware that their children could already be in danger.
Officials have released only a limited account of what led to the gunfire. The sheriff’s office said the shooting occurred at an establishment on Bill Carter Road, but authorities had not publicly described the event taking place there, the number of people gathered, or what may have triggered the shooting. That leaves key questions unresolved: whether the teens were intended targets, whether an argument or confrontation preceded the attack, and whether the gunfire began inside or outside the location. The sheriff’s office said investigators were actively working to identify and locate the suspect or suspects involved and were following all available leads. No suspect had been named by Sunday, and there had been no public announcement of arrests or charges.
Leonard’s public comments also reflected a wider emotional response in Liberty County. He said he and his siblings were raised to settle conflict without violence, then voiced frustration that young people are still ending up in situations where guns decide the outcome. His remarks did not answer the case’s open questions, but they explained why the shooting resonated beyond those directly involved. The victims were teenagers, the scene was in a community neighbors do not usually associate with such violence, and the injuries were serious enough to split the victims between hospitals in two cities. In that way, the aftermath became both intimate and civic at once, touching one family’s fear while forcing public officials to speak to a shaken county.
By Sunday night, the county was in a waiting period familiar after major shootings: waiting for names, waiting for a suspect, waiting for a clearer account of what happened in the first minutes after 12:30 a.m. Investigators were expected to keep interviewing witnesses, tracing evidence from the scene and examining the bullet-damaged vehicle found at the hospital. The next public turn in the case will likely come when sheriff’s officials announce whether they have identified a shooter or made an arrest.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.