Crime

Who shot and killed Macon Air Force veteran? A black van could be part of the mystery

Bibb County sheriff’s investigators have divulged little publicly in their search for the killer of a Macon man who was found shot to death in a yard along Forest Hill Road late Monday.

An initial incident report of the 9:30 p.m. shooting made available by sheriff’s officials on Wednesday provided new details about the death of 37-year-old cook and Air Force veteran Michael Alvin Lewis.

A sheriff’s deputy who answered a call about a person shot at 771 Oak Hill Court, which sits half a mile or so south of Northside Drive along Forest Hill, noted in the report that when he arrived he saw Lewis lying face down on the front lawn.

Lewis, the county’s first homicide victim of 2020, had been shot in the back and chest.

A man at the house on Oak Hill walked out the front door and told the deputy that he was the one who had reported the shooting, the report said.

The man, according to report, said he had been inside the house when he heard three gunshots “and then saw a black van driving away from the incident location quickly. He advised that the van made a right turn (onto) Forest Hill,” heading south.

The report goes on to say that the deputy asked the man “if he was familiar with the victim or his name and he advised that it may be someone he knows as Mike Lewis.”

The report said the man identified himself as a bartender at nearby Billy’s Clubhouse. He told the deputy that he might know Lewis as a bar patron, “but he is not sure because he did not get a good look at him.”

Investigators have not publicly identified any suspects.

This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 4:44 PM.

Joe Kovac Jr.
The Telegraph
Joe Kovac Jr. writes about local news and features for The Telegraph, with an eye for human-interest stories. Joe is a Warner Robins native and graduate of Warner Robins High. He joined the Telegraph in 1991 after graduating from the University of Georgia. As a Pulliam Fellowship recipient in 1991, Joe worked for the Indianapolis News. His stories have appeared in the Washington Post, the Seattle Times and Atlanta Magazine. He has been a Livingston Award finalist and won numerous Georgia Press Association and Georgia Associated Press awards.
Get unlimited digital access
#ReadLocal

Try 1 month for $1

CLAIM OFFER