Man charged in cousin’s shooting death was barred from having a gun, indictment says

A Macon man charged in his cousin’s Feb. 4 shooting death was indicted Tuesday.

Robert Dewitt Cummings III, 56, is charged with two counts of felony murder and one count each of malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to an indictment filed in Bibb County Superior Court.

Cummings, who was convicted in 1998 on a felony forgery charge, was barred from having a gun at the time he allegedly shot his cousin, Oscar Eugene Freeman Jr., according to the indictment.

An initial incident report noted that the two men had been drinking and a witness said Cummings and Freeman had argued on the afternoon of the shooting. Freeman found face down in a pool of blood, on a sidewalk, outside a house in the 200 block of Pansy Avenue.

A witness told the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office Cummings went to his car and returned with a “grin on his face and a pistol in his hand,” according to the report.

Cummings allegedly shot Freeman twice in the face, authorities have said.

Cummings, who was arrested on the day of the shooting, is being held at the Bibb County jail without bond, according to jail records.

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Man charged in cousin’s shooting death was barred from having a gun, indictment says."