Augusta, Richmond County, GA | featured news

About 40 adults and children honored Augusta’s ties to the American Revolution at a Fourth of July ceremony.
The Signers Monument in downtown Augusta stands over the remains of two of Georgia’s three signers of the Declaration of Independence: George Walton and Lyman Hall. The state’s third signer, Button Gwinnett, was buried in a Savannah grave whose location was lost.
The 50-foot granite monument at Greene and Monument streets faces the large window at Augusta Municipal Building that formerly was the building’s front door.

Three people were injured in a shooting in Waynesboro on Saturday night.
At 10:55 p.m., police were called to the intersection of Washington Place and Washington Drive, where they found 35-year-old Travis Walker on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound, according to a news release. He was taken to AU Medical Center.
Johndrick Mells, 27, of Augus­ta, and Rico Abraams, 32, of Waynes­boro, were also treated for gunshot wounds.
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A south Augusta resident for nearly 40 years, Commissioner-elect Andrew Jeffer­son has watched the area’s retail shift first-hand.
He recalled when banks and car dealerships lined Gor­don Highway. A seven-theater cinema entertained his family at Regency Mall. There was a Builderama and a Drug Emporium. Pizza Huts, steakhouses and buffets were a few minutes away.

A 20-year-old man drowned while swimming in Thurmond Lake Saturday afternoon.
He was identified as Nickalous Ramon Jones, according to Capt. Mark Padgett, of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The incident took place after 2 p.m. when Jones and others were swimming outside the regular swimming area at the Big Hart camping area in McDuffie County.
Jones, who was not wearing a flotation device, went under. His body was recovered about 3:55 p.m., Padgett said.

A burglary suspect arrested by Aiken County sheriff’s investigators has also been charged with murder, authorities said Saturday.
According to a news release from the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, Gregory Levi Davis Jr., 21, was arrested Friday on warrant for first-degree burglary in connection with the June 7 death investigation on Wire Road.
About 11:25 a.m. that morning, deputies responded to the 500 block of Wire Road, where Nicky Cockrell, 49, was found dead. The coroner ruled it a homicide.

COLUMBIA — Richland County deputies say Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah has been arrested after slamming his estranged wife’s leg in a car door during a child custody exchange.

Sheriff Leon Lott said in a news release that Baddourah turned himself in to deputies Saturday morning and was charged with second-degree criminal domestic violence.

Deputies said Baddourah argued with his wife on Wednesday in the parking lot of a restaurant before Baddourah slammed the door on his wife’s leg.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A police officer in South Carolina likely saved the lives of four or five deputies by shooting and killing a “very heavily armed” man after something went wrong during an undercover operation, a sheriff said Saturday.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said the shooting happened around 7 p.m. Friday at a home in Landrum. Undercover officers called in uniform deputies after “something didn’t go right,” the sheriff added.

Staff
A 58-year-old woman died from injuries in a Friday night traffic accident on Peach Orchard Road.
Pamela Leah Stewart, of the 2800 block Waterside Drive, was killed in the 6:20 p.m. accident on the 2600 block of Peach Orchard, according to Coroner Mark Bowen.
She was riding in the back seat of a 2003 Toyota Solara driven by her son and was not wearing a seat belt, the coroner said.
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More than 70 people have been arrested at the conclusion of a multi-month operation that is the third of Sheriff’s Richard Roundtree’s summer initiatives to decrease violence in Richmond County.
Operation Chip Shot resulted in 50 arrests in Richmond County and 17 in other jurisdictions from Columbia and Aiken counties to as far away as Virginia and Maryland. Seven sex offenders were arrested for violation of probation.
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The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office is requesting public assistance in locating a missing elderly man.
Vernon Diggs, 67, was last seen April 4 at 9:25 a.m., on the 3100 Block of Peach Orchard Road. Diggs resides on the 2100 block of Pepperidge Drive. He was wearing a black jacket, black hat and sunglasses, and does not have any known medical conditions, according to a news release.
Anyone with information on Diggs is asked to contact Investigator Ronald Sylvester at (706) 821-1020.