Son of late Macon soul musician Percy Welch dies of Sunday gunshot wound
A 46-year-old Macon man who was shot in the head late Sunday at backyard gathering on the north side of the city’s Unionville neighborhood died Thursday at a local hospital, officials said.
Percy Welch Jr., the son of prominent late soul musician Melvin C. “Percy” Welch, was pronounced dead at about 2 p.m., Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said.
The younger Welch was one of three people wounded Sunday night at a house at 2830 Cherry Ave.
The shooting scene lies about a block north of Columbus Road near Brentwood Avenue, less than half a mile west of Pio Nono Avenue.
Bibb County sheriff’s deputies answering a “person shot” call there shortly before 10 p.m. found the wounded Welch Jr. lying on the ground, an incident report noted. He was still breathing and taken to a downtown hospital.
No arrests are believed to have been made in the shootings, though according to the initial incident report a man inside the house where the three men were shot was said to have emerged with a pistol when the cops got there and “placed the firearm on the ground.”
If Welch Jr.’s slaying is deemed a murder, he would be the county’s 38th murder victim of the year. Not counting vehicular homicides, there have been 45 violent-death homicides countywide in 2021.
Welch Jr.’s father, who died in 2004 at age 75, was a prominent soul musician known for his 1957 party hit “Back Door Man.”
According to a Historic Macon Foundation notation of his career, the senior Welch owned two Black hotels and “is credited with helping the careers of Little Richard, Otis Redding, and Phil and Alan Walden.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 4:24 PM.