Shot in the head, Georgia man drives nearly 20 miles in the wrong direction for help

A man who had gone to a house on the north side of Milledgeville to pick up his belongings Wednesday night was greeted by another man there who shot him in the head, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the 8:15 p.m. shooting, but Shasta Richardson, with a bullet wound in the right side of his head, drove some 20 miles across Lake Sinclair and up to Eatonton to a hospital.

“I don’t know why he went there,” said Sheriff Howard Sills of Putnam County, where the hospital is.

Richardson, 36, who was said to be “conscious and alert” late Wednesday, could have sought help at the Milledgeville hospital, which is at least a dozen miles closer in Baldwin County, where the shooting happened.

Baldwin sheriff’s Capt. Brad King said Richardson had been living in Eatonton lately and that may have been why he drove there.

“That’s the only explanation I can figure,” King told The Telegraph.

King said the alleged shooter, Willis Rozier, of Milledgeville, faces aggravated assault charges.

The captain said Richardson has since been taken to a Macon hospital.

This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 8:56 AM.