‘It seems like lives just don’t matter,’ man says after second recent shooting in Macon neighborhood

A man was shot in the neck at English Village Apartments on Wednesday afternoon.

Neighbors heard shots about 1:30 p.m. but didn’t see anyone hurt, Bibb County sheriff’s Cpl. Linda Howard said. Minutes later, 22-year-old Estee Tharpe III showed up at a Macon hospital with a gunshot wound to his neck.

According to a news release from the sheriff’s office, Tharpe was walking home from a friend’s house when he heard several gunshots and started running. Tharpe felt pain in his neck and realized he’d been shot. A friend drove him to a hospital, the release said.

The apartment complex isn’t far from the intersection of Ryals and English avenues off Vineville Avenue.

In September, 35-year-old Ralfeale Carnell Lowe was fatally shot inside apartment H at English Avenue Apartments nearby. Two teens have been charged with murder in Lowe’s death.

Close by at Vineville Christian Towers, a man who said his name is Thriller Miller heard the gunfire.

“We heard the shots, but we didn’t think it was nothing but firecrackers,” Miller said. “We just got through this. ... Where another young man got killed. ... We weren’t thinking nothing like this was going to happen this early again, but, you know, it did.”

Miller also heard the shots when Lowe was killed.

“It seems like lives just don’t matter,” Miller said.

Tharpe was in stable condition late Wednesday.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 478-751-7500, or call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68-CRIME.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 4:13 PM with the headline "‘It seems like lives just don’t matter,’ man says after second recent shooting in Macon neighborhood."