Man shot in the face in Fort Hill identified by Macon coroner

A man who was shot in the face Monday morning has been identified by the Macon-Bibb County coroner.

Dominique Phillips, 29, was found dead in the backyard of a home at the intersection of Eastview Avenue and Hawkinsville Avenue in the Fort Hill neighborhood, said Coroner Leon Jones.

Bibb County Sheriff’s Office received a call that shots were fired around 1 a.m. Monday morning, but deputies didn’t find anyone at the scene, said spokesperson Sgt. Linda Howard.

The office received a second call around 5 a.m., and deputies arrived shortly after to find Phillips dead with a gunshot wound, she said.

Macon-Bibb County has had 29 deaths so far this year, including in the count the unborn child of a pregnant homicide victim and a teenager killed in a car crash in which the fleeing teen driver was charged with felony murder, according to the coroner’s office. The county had 26 homicides in 2019, 42 in 2018 and 30 in 2017, according to a Telegraph article.

Jones said as soon as he heard there was another homicide in Macon, he began filling out the paperwork for a black male, and people should be protesting and marching to end this violence as well.

“This is somebody’s child in the backyard dead,” he said. “This is someone’s loved one right here.”

Howard said the homicide is still under investigation.

Anyone with information about the homicide is urged to contact the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500, or Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.

This story was originally published June 8, 2020 at 7:19 AM.