‘It was chaos.’ Police looking for multiple suspects in Fort Valley mass shooting

Investigators are working to identify multiple suspects in an early Saturday morning shooting at a Fort Valley house party that left one person dead and seven injured.

Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said witnesses to the shooting described a chaotic scene in the 600 block of Carver Drive, across the street from Fort Valley State University.

“There was just a large crowd of people,” Deese said. “Everything was going fine, somebody started yelling and then gunshots. Of course, then it was chaos.”

The GBI is investigating the incident, and Deese said law enforcement is looking for more than one person.

“We’re pretty sure there were multiple shooters,” he said. “Definitely more than one.”

Deese said he believed there were some three dozen or more witnesses that the investigators had to talk to, adding that bystanders and people at the scene had been “very cooperative.”

“Hopefully, they’ll be able to narrow it down,” he said.

Deese said that some of the people were driven to hospitals in Peach and Bibb counties before ambulances arrived on the scene.

“We feel confident that GBI investigators will be able to get this sorted out,” he said.

Peach County Coroner Kerry Rooks identified the victim as Tyler French, 27. French was pronounced dead at 3:03 a.m. in a Macon hospital.

Fort Valley State University confirmed French was not an FVSU student. The university canceled its Saturday morning homecoming parade and alumni breakfast.

A football game this afternoon between FVSU and Clark Atlanta University is still scheduled, but with increased security, a university spokesperson said.

This story was originally published October 23, 2021 at 11:31 AM.