Man found fatally shot in east Macon home

A 57-year-old man was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest Tuesday afternoon in an east Macon home near Lake Arrowhead.

A relative found Harry Lee Williams unresponsive and called 911 at 3:22 p.m., Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said.

"The fire department arrived on the scene first," Jones said. "When the victim was checked by a fireman, he discovered a gunshot wound."

Jones said he suspects the shooting to be a homicide and, if confirmed, it would make it the county's second of the year.

Crime scene tape enclosed an area around two homes in the 3200 block of Joseph Waller Drive off Millerfield Road.

Some of Williams' family members were in the house when fire and emergency personnel arrived, Jones said.

The victim's brother, James Williams, watched investigators work. He stood with nearly a half dozen other family members who gathered and embraced each other around a green truck parked in a grassy lot across the street from the crime scene.

"I'm just getting here. I don't know nothing," James Williams said. "My wife called me. I was trying to do a little work. ... It's such a strange thing to me."

James Williams said his brothers, Alton and Harry, lived in the house together.

"He was disabled physically," James Williams said of his deceased brother. "He had back problems (and) all kinds of health issues."

A Bibb County sheriff's detective handled a gun-sniffing canine named "Remi" while they walked near the edge of the lake across the street.

Barbara Neeley stood with a few neighbors who watched the activity from afar. President of the community's neighborhood watch group, Neeley said she was at home at the time of the shooting but didn't learn about it until a neighbor called.

"I'm so sorry that this has happened in my neighborhood. We're not used to this, not at all," Neeley said. "At night, it's so very quiet and peaceful. You can see ladies walking and exercising."

Neeley said she met Harry Williams once at a neighborhood watch group event.

"I didn't see him that much. But every now and then, if I was walking, he would be ... working in the yard," Neeley said. "I was just saying today how nice everything was and that goes to show you, you cannot say what will not be."

Neeley said crime is everywhere.

"Right now, it doesn't matter where you live in Macon, Georgia," she said. "It's almost like, you can be on the north, east, the south -- it doesn't matter."

The shooting is being investigated. Anyone with information about the killing is asked to call Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 877-68-CRIME.

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 7:26 PM with the headline "Man found fatally shot in east Macon home ."