MACON, Ga. — Imagine laying in bed at night and hearing, "Pow, pow, pow!" Dozens of gunshots ring out just outside your own bedroom window.
It's a weekly occurrence for Ami Padget and dozens of other people who live near Vineville Avenue.
"I have lived in lots of other cities in my lifetime, and I have never lived in a neighborhood where there were gunshots every night," says Padget. "I've heard up to 20 of them at a time. I mean, just like one after another."
And she's not the only one.
According to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, since the start of 2019, deputies have responded to at least 80 "shots fired" calls in the area between Vineville Avenue, Ingleside Avenue, and Riverside Drive.
"I quit letting my daughter play in our backyard because even people being stupid -- stray bullets are no fun, you know? They can hurt or kill even without intention," says Padget.
The Bibb County Sheriff's Office says six people have actually been shot in that same area since January 1st.
But what about other areas of Macon-Bibb?
Open records from the sheriff's office say since the beginning of the year, there's been at least 104 shots fired calls in southwest Macon between Eisenhower Parkway, Log Cabin Drive and Houston Avenue -- a size comparable to the area around where Padget lives.
And countywide, there have been over 2,700 shots fired calls and 224 people shot so far this year.
Sheriff David Davis says he's aware of the high number of calls.
"If you hear gunshots, remain inside, because what goes up must come down," says Davis. "You have pockets of areas where there are people who have guns. You have pockets of areas where we have a little more criminal activity. We have places where people have the mindset to engage in celebratory or just shooting of their guns."
Davis says no matter where you live, if you hear gunshots in your neighborhood, report it!
"Give as best a description as to where it's coming from as you can, so that the deputies can go to that area," says Davis. "Through technology, we can correlate that shell casing to perhaps another crime that may have been committed somewhere else in our community."
"I think talking about it -- and doing news stories on this -- brings the issue to light," says Padget.
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