Injured child ‘alert’ after shooting killed mom, Macon coroner says. Suspect arrested
A man was arrested hours after a mother was fatally shot Tuesday night in Macon, according to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.
An argument reportedly happened before gunshots killed Ayana Smith, 28, and injured her 2-year-old daughter, according to the Bibb County Coroner’s Office.
The toddler was “conscious and alert,” and “had a bullet in her and cell phone fragments in her arm,” Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones said. She was first treated at a Macon emergency room then transferred to a children’s hospital in Atlanta, Jones said.
“There was an argument between the mom and the shooter,” Jones told The Telegraph.
Verbal disputes prompt most local shootings, according to Jones and BCSO records analyzed by The Telegraph.
Suspect faces charges
Marquiz Deonte Brooks, 34, allegedly shot and killed Smith, and injured the child, around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of Fulton Steet, off Gray Highway in east Macon, the sheriff’s office said in a news release Tuesday evening.
Deputies spoke with him at the scene, and he was initially considered a “person of interest,” the news release said. He was taken to the sheriff’s office for questioning where deputies identified him as a suspect.
Brooks was arrested and booked in the Bibb County Jail around 10 p.m., deputies said.
He was charged with murder and aggravated assault, and held without bond, according to the jail’s log of detainees.
This story was originally published February 11, 2026 at 11:53 AM.
