His friend said ‘Don’t shoot,’ but he fired anyway

Tkyemia Dashawn Watts was with friends, throwing money at strippers at Macon’s Club Status on Feb. 2, 2015, when he noticed a group of people giving him strange looks.

Watts, a member of the Bloods street gang was wearing red. Most of the people in the other group were members of the Crips gang, prosecutor Sandra Matson said during a Thursday hearing in Bibb County Superior Court.

Someone from the Crips gang walked over and hit Watts in the face, sparking a brawl that spilled outside the Pio Nono Avenue nightclub, she said.

Jawaski Keon Mack, 29, got a gun from a car and shot Watts as another man, 26-year-old Satravias D. Holmes was on top of him, fighting Watts on the ground, Matson said.

On Thursday, Mack pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act as part of a plea agreement. He was sentenced to 30 years, 15 of them in prison. Mack and Holmes initially were charged with the attempted murder of Watts.

Watts was shot at least three times with wounds in both his legs and an arm, the prosecutor said.

The case against Holmes, who is charged with aggravated assault and several gang and gun charges, still is pending.

Just before Mack shot Watts, one of Mack’s friends told him “Don’t shoot that man. We don’t need this. Don’t shoot him,” Matson said.

At the time, Mack was on probation for a 2009 east Macon gang-related shooting, the prosecutor said.

In 2012, he’d been arrested in another east Macon gang shootout that left a woman across the street grazed in the head by a stray bullet. Without witness cooperation, the case wasn’t prosecuted, Matson said.

Three women spoke during the hearing Thursday, pleading for mercy on Mack’s behalf. They talked about how Mack’s life has changed since the birth of his 1-year-old daughter and described him as a hard-working convenience store employee.

His mother cried, “My child, he has changed a whole lot.”

Mack read aloud a written statement, telling the judge he wants to be a better person for his daughter and that it was hard for him to be the man he wants to be while hanging out with the wrong crowd.

His lawyer, Debra Gomez, said Mack has apologized to Watts.

Before sentencing Mack, Judge Howard Simms said while it’s good that Mack and Watts have made amends, he also has concern for the other people at the club on the night of the shooting.

“It seems to me that about 98 times out of a 100 when you gangsters start shooting at one another you shoot the wrong people and the wrong people die,” the judge said.

He asked Mack, “You see your momma out there crying. You know whose fault that is?”

Mack replied, “Mine.”

Simms asked, “You see all those other people that are upset? You know whose fault that is?”

Mack replied, “Mine.”

The judge asked, “You know whose fault it is that you’re going to the penitentiary?”

Mack replied, “Mine.”

Simms went on to say, “the evidence is unquestionable, you’re a dangerous guy. You resolve your disputes by shooting at people. Somehow, someway, somewhere down the line, somebody’s going to get killed. The only way that I know to keep that from happening is to take you out of the situation.”

He told Mack he was told in 2010 that he was spending time with the wrong crowd.

“When you get back over to the jail, you have access to a mirror or something shiny that you can see your reflection in, I want you to look at it,” Simms said. “The person that you see looking back at you, that is the wrong crowd, Mr. Mack. You’re looking at him.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 12:47 PM with the headline "His friend said ‘Don’t shoot,’ but he fired anyway."