5 months ago
The Bibb County Sheriff's Department says they've arrested 16-year-old Javone Malik Taylor and charged him with Friday morning's deadly shooting outside a west Bibb County gas station.
Deputy Sean Defoe says they plan to charge Taylor with Felony Murder, Armed Robbery, Possession of a Firearm by an Under Aged Person, and Criminal Attempt to Commit Carjacking. Defoe says Taylor is currently being held at the Youth Detention Center. He will have his first appearance hearing before a Superior Court Judge soon.
Chief Deputy David Davis said deputies arrested the man around 3 p.m. Friday in the fatal shooting of Jaymal Patel of Sandersville in the parking lot of the RaceWay at 5127 Mercer University Drive.
Patel died Friday morning after being shot in the head.
At a news conference, Davis said surveillance video at the RaceWay store led investigators to a tan Chrysler van and the four men inside.
"Without the video system we had last night," said Chief Deputy David Davis, with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, "we would not be anywhere near where we are in the investigation now."
Those men led deputies to the alleged shooter. But Davis said the men in the van have been released and are not suspects in the shooting.
He said Friday that the case is still "evolving" and deputies are still carrying out search warrants.
Davis spoke during a Macon Police Department news conference.
At that news conference, Mayor Robert Reichert promised law enforcement would work through the weekend to solve two different shooting cases that happened in Bibb this week.
"Violence doesn't take a holiday. Criminal activity does not take a holiday," said Reichert. "The Macon Police and Bibb County Sheriff's Office can't take a holiday either."
At the RaceWay and at other gas stations in the area, convenience store owners and workers said Friday the mood was very tense.
Several declined to speak on camera to 13WMAZ, saying they feared they could be the next target.
Some said this incident has convinced them to buckle down even more on security measures -- locking up early for the night or hiring personal security guards to help them close in the evenings.
The sheriff's department says a friend dropped off Patel, whose brother works at the RaceWay, so that he could get a ride home. The business had just closed.
The 16-year-old approached Patel from one of the gas pumps, showed a silver gun and demanded that Patel give him money, the news release says. He gave the man his wallet, which was empty, and the man demanded money again. Then he shot twice, hitting Patel once in the upper arm and again in the head. The man ran toward Mercer University Drive.
Friday morning, deputies searched an apartment off Mercer University Drive in the case.
The search was carried out at the West Club Apartments on Steven Drive. The apartments are about a mile from the scene of the shooting.
The sheriff's department also towed away the tan minivan that was suspected of a connection to the case.
Jaymal Patel is the third man fatally shot at a Central Georgia convenience store in about seven weeks.
In July, a robber shot and killed Danny Patel at the Lina Food store on Irwinton Road in Milledgeville.
Then on Sunday, Dipak Patel was killed by a robber at the Chevron store on Riverside Drive in Macon.
Anyone with information on the cases can call the Bibb County Sheriff's Office at 
478-746-9441 or Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.
