Threats, shootings preceded July 4 homicide. Macon ‘failed us,’ family says
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- Family reported three attacks and a social-media threat to Bibb deputies before July 4.
- Deputies had videos, shell casings and leads, yet homicide still occurred months later.
- Two men were later charged with felony murder after Contrel Dixon died on Oct. 23, 2025.
A Macon family warned officers about shootings and threats at their home three times before a 24-year-old was killed there, according to records from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
Two shootings and a threat on social media targeted the east Macon house throughout the four months before Contrel Dixon was shot on July 4, and later died, records from the sheriff’s office show.
Dixon, the father of a 1-year-old son, was shot through a living room window while sitting on a couch in his home on the 1100 block of Sparkle Avenue, Deputy Anthony Taylor said in an incident report, which described the officer’s account of what happened. The 24-year-old victim was a musician and dancer.
He had five surgeries over three months and spent a day in hospice, then died on Oct. 23, his family said.
Before his death, deputies had a possible home address, physical descriptions, nicknames and relatives’ names and videos of those allegedly involved in the threats and violence against the home, according to several records from the sheriff’s office. But investigative efforts didn’t thwart the final fatal shooting.
Demetria Veronica Dixon, the 24-year-old’s mother, said deputies didn’t do enough to prevent his death.
“The same person that’s in jail now for shooting my son did this to my house two other times, and they finally want to do something when my son gets shot,” Demetria Dixon said at a balloon release honoring his life on Oct. 31, in front of the Rosa Jackson Recreational Center.
Dontavis Anquan Jackson, 19, and Michael Winston Burney Jr., 25, were charged with felony murder in connection to his death, the sheriff’s office said. It was unclear if others were arrested in connection with previous incidents at the house.
The sheriff’s office has not responded to requests for comment about whether the two suspects were connected to the prior incidents, and the men haven’t been charged with any additional crimes related to those incidents as of publication, court records show.
“I honestly feel the city failed us,” Shaquinta Card, one of Contrel Dixon’s sisters, said at the balloon release.
Social media threat
In the first of three incidents before Contrel Dixon’s death, a social media video showed a group of boys threatening to shoot at the family’s house, according to records from the sheriff’s office.
Demetria Dixon called 911 regarding the threats around 2 p.m. on March 20. Cpl. Sharon Howard responded to the home and categorized the incident as alleged terroristic threats, which is a misdemeanor, or felony if the threat suggests death, according to Georgia law.
“(Demetria Dixon) said that the boys posted on social media a video of them holding up guns on their street and said they were going to shoot up the house,” Howard said in an incident report.
The boys threatened one of Demetria Dixon’s sons “over an old feud that was handled a while back,” Howard said.
The sheriff’s office’s Gang Unit saved the video and other evidence related to the threat, according to the incident report. Deputies did not immediately identify a suspect, and neither Jackson nor Burney were identified in investigative records in connection to the incident.
Bullets in the kitchen
Terror escalated a week later when the Dixon family’s home was shot into with seven relatives inside, including another one of Demetria Dixon’s sons, who was previously threatened.
The mother was getting ready for work when gunshots flew into their home before 5 a.m. on March 27, another incident report from the sheriff’s office said. She called 911 and Sgt. Wayne Dover responded to the scene.
Demetria Dixon told Dover “She heard gun shots (and) stated she noticed a bullet went through her door, window, and cabinets,” the incident report said.
Dover said in the report he collected two bullets that Demetria Dixon found on her kitchen floor, and turned them into the BCSO Crime Lab, which processes forensic evidence.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately identify a suspect, and again the two suspects charged in the fatal shooting were not identified in records.
The suspect in the March 27 shooting used a semi-automatic handgun, and the incident was being investigated as aggravated assault, which means someone intends to murder, injure or actually injures someone with a weapon, according to Georgia law.
Demetria Dixon told Dover she believed this shooting was related to the previous threats, and gave him the case number related to the social media video, according to the report.
No one was injured in either incident, the documents said. Dispatchers notified Sgt. Tatreaus Gray, a gang investigator, of what happened, according to the incident report.
‘Clutching at their waist’
Over a month later, two boys allegedly intimidated Demetria Dixon at a gas station, then her house was shot up early the next morning, according to an incident report.
She told deputies that her son who was threatened in March knew one of the boys who approached her at the gas station, according to an incident report.
Demetria Dixon stopped for gas around noon on May 8, at Chevron, 584 Emery Highway — about a mile and a half from her Sparkle Avenue home.
Two boys “wearing hoodies and clutching at their waist … approached her vehicle,” the incident report said. “The males asked her what she was looking at.”
She then called the mother of one of the boys, “but the entire conversation turned into an argument,” the report said.
Demetria Dixon provided a deputy with the boys’ nicknames and one of their moms’ names, according to the incident report.
She heard gunshots around 1:30 a.m. the next day, and found bullet holes in “the tent in her yard, the trampoline, and a large aloe plant,” the records said.
A semi-automatic handgun was again used in the shooting, deputies said in the report.
Demetria Dixon and five others were in the house when the shooting happened, the incident report said.
A deputy responded to her home when she reported the shooting to 911. Demetria Dixon told the deputy where the boys live, which is about a block away from the Chevron, according to the incident report.
The deputy saw video footage at the gas station “when two males wearing hoodies walked near her in the video,” the incident report said.
The deputy told her to get a restraining order, according to the document.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately identify a suspect, the incident report said, and again the two men charged in the fatal shooting were not identified in records tied to the incident.
Prior problems ‘not taken seriously’
About a month later, Contrel Dixon was shot in his family’s home that had been targeted the three times before, records from the sheriff’s office show.
Once again, Demetria Dixon told deputies the incident may be related to previous incidents, and she provided those case numbers.
The fatal shooting was reported to 911 around 11:30 p.m. on July 4. Contrel Dixon was initially in critical condition, and died on Oct. 23, Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones confirmed.
A woman was sitting next to him on a couch when he got shot. Three others were also in the house, including Contrel Dixon’s twin sister, Contrella Denise Dixon.
“We made so many reports and nobody did anything until he actually got hit,” Contrella Dixon, the mother of an infant, told The Telegraph at her brother’s balloon release.
Shell casings were found in front of the couch and 15 casings were found in front of their house, “indicating that the gunfire may have originated from outside that location,” Taylor said in an incident report. The casings were submitted to the sheriff’s office’s crime lab.
“A neighbor reported seeing a gray SUV involved in the shooting,” Taylor said. A suspect’s vehicle was identified as a gold Chevrolet Heritage High Roof.
Deputies were investigating other aspects of the shooting, including possession of machine guns, sawed-off rifles, sawed-off shotguns or firearms equipped with silencers; possession of a firearm or knife during commission of crime against person; unlawful possession of firearms or weapons; theft by receiving stolen property; and possessing or concealing an automatic weapon, an incident report said.
Jackson, of west Macon, and Burney, of Gray, initially faced aggravated assault charges. Those were upgraded to felony murder when Contrel Dixon died. They were incarcerated in the Bibb County Jail.
A grand jury indicted them in connection to the initial aggravated assault charges, but they haven’t been formally charged with murder yet, according to court records and Summer Johnson, an investigative administrator of the Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. Johnson said she doesn’t expect their re-indictment hearing to occur until 2026.
They were being charged as co-defendants, meaning it is believed they operated together in the act, according to Cheryll Massengale, criminal clerk for Bibb County Superior Court.
The sheriff’s office, as well as Jackson and Burney’s attorneys, did not immediately respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment on these cases.
“I feel like it’s not taken seriously until it’s you, until it’s your family,” Contrella Dixon said.
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 7:59 AM.
