Cops: Suspects in Macon ‘homeless camp’ shooting demanded cash and sex for weed, beer
New details have emerged in recent days in a May shooting that left a man “slightly grazed” and not seriously hurt during an apparent altercation at what Bibb County sheriff’s officials described as a “homeless camp” along Riverside Drive in downtown Macon.
At bond hearings for the two men charged in the shooting, prosecutors have said the pair were known to go to the camp along the Ocmulgee River and provide people there with items only to return later and demand cash and sex.
One of the suspects, 64-year-old Larry Tarver, of Macon, who is charged with aggravated assault, was recently released from the county jail on bond, his lawyer, Melvin Raines II, told The Telegraph on Friday.
At a hearing on Thursday, Tarver’s co-defendant in the case, Ricky Bernard Veal, 53, of Gordon, who is also charged with aggravated assault, was denied bond by Superior Court Judge Jeffery O. Monroe.
The shooting happened the night of May 13, not far from Third Street’s terminus at Riverside Drive near the Ocmulgee. It was there that sheriff’s deputies heard gunfire coming from the camp, which led them to arrest Tarver and Veal.
At Veal’s bond hearing Thursday, his attorney, C. Alan Wheeler, said Veal “maintains his innocence.”
Prosecutor Rachel Murphy, however, said Veal and Tarver would “frequently visit” the camp and “give the homeless individuals cigarettes, beer or marijuana for free.”
Murphy said that afterward, “a few days later,” the pair would return and “demand payment in the form of cash or sexual favors.”
She said that “when the homeless individuals refused,” Veal and Tarver would “become angry.”
“The victims in this case said it’s not uncommon for (Veal and Tarver) to shoot at the individuals, which is what occurred,” Murphy said.
Two men at the camp were named as victims in the shooting, though only one was wounded.