By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Hundreds of Atmore residents and visitors enjoyed pre-Christmas events over the weekend, but three local men will never see another Christmas after one of the city’s most violent weekends in recent memory.
Atmore police have a suspect in jail for a late-Friday (December 6) shooting at Point Escambia Apartments that led to the death of one local man. Detectives and patrol officers are seeking the gunman or gunmen in a Sunday night (December 7) shooting on Ashley Street that left two other local men dead.
“Yes, this is one of the most violent and bloody weekends we’ve had in a long time,” Police Chief Chuck Brooks said Monday. “The shooting at Point Escambia is pretty simple; we have the shooter in custody. We’re still in the early stages of the Ashley Street investigation.”
The first murderous incident took place just before 11 p.m. at the apartment complex, just off Col. Farris Drive, which is USDA-sponsored and is for seniors and disabled individuals.
Gelonté Giles, 31, of Atmore was first booked into the Escambia County Detention Center on one count each of attempted murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied building.
Giles reportedly argued with his victim — 32-year-old Rakeem Phillips — and to settle the argument pulled a shotgun and began firing. Phillips, who was hit at least three times, died Sunday in an area trauma center to which he was transferred after receiving preliminary treatment at Atmore Community Hospital.
The charge against Giles, who remained behind bars without bond early Tuesday, has been upgraded to murder.
At least 20 buckshot pellets tore through an occupied apartment’s front window, into its living area, and left gaping holes in its roof soffit. The son of the elderly resident who lives there said his mother just missed being killed or seriously injured.
“She said she heard three shots and got up to see what was happening,” Danny Rolin said. “If she had gotten up between the first and third shots, she would have been shot. She’s OK but she’s pretty shook up about it.”
Another resident of the complex, who didn’t want her name published, said she “lay in bed, still as I could, when I heard the shots, hoping I wouldn’t get hit.”
A few hours after doctors pronounced Phillips dead in the Point Escambia shooting, dispatchers relayed a report that at least one person had been shot at a vacant house on Ashley Street, and police were sent to the scene around 8:15 p.m.
They found two black males, 25-year-old Juwan McNeal and 27-year-old Joe Jones Jr., both of Atmore, inside a vehicle, each dead from several bullet wounds.
“Our officers found two people inside a vehicle and verified that they had passed away,” Brooks said. “We found more than 20 shell casings surrounding the vehicle.”
A person who lives near the shooting site said the two men were laughing and smoking inside the vehicle when the shooter or shooters came from behind the vacant house and started blasting away. Police have not yet disclosed the type of weapon used in the double slaying.
The two incidents, one coming on the heels of the other, have prompted Brooks and City Attorney Larry Wettermark to begin drafting a curfew proposal, which will be discussed at a public forum before being implemented (see separate story, Curfew is imminent, police chief tells council).