‘He was bleeding real bad.’ Man killed in midday ‘altercation’ at south Macon motel
An argument at a south Macon motel ended in gunfire and left a 32-year-old man dead on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
The victim, Lance Michael Terrell, was fatally wounded at the Magnolia Court Motel shortly after 3 p.m., authorities said.
Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said Terrell, who was taken by ambulance to a city hospital, was pronounced dead at 4 p.m.
After he was shot, Terrell was lying in a patch of grass just outside the Jumbo Mart, a convenience store that sits in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped motor lodge along a bustling Ga. 247 at the southern terminus of Broadway and Pio Nono Avenue.
A woman at the motel rushed over to help the wounded man, applying pressure to his wound with a towel.
“His girlfriend is my friend and she was screaming,” said the woman, who didn’t give her name. “He was bleeding real bad.”
The woman said she also saw the gunman and said he was nonchalant enough to ask about her pet dog, Hashtag, before striding across Ga. 247 to the eastern wing of the motel.
“I was thinking he was gonna shoot again ... if I didn’t have Hashtag,” the woman said. “(He’s) obsessed with Hashtag for some reason.”
Sheriff’s deputies later found the alleged shooter in a motel room across the highway, where they were also said to have recovered a handgun.
Sheriff’s officials in a statement described the events leading to the shooting as “an altercation,” and said a suspect, Willie Lee Daniel III,vhad been taken in for questioning. Daniel, 34, was later charged with murder and aggravated assault.
Terrell’s death is the 17th homicide in Macon this year that has or is likely to result in a murder charge.
Two other violent deaths have resulted in involuntary manslaughter charges being levied against a pair of suspects, while two more people have died in vehicular homicide cases.
This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 5:16 PM.