On the night of Friday, December 17, 2021, 21-year-old Matthew Williams-Jacobs was found critically wounded by gunfire near Tammy’s Do Drop In on Orange Street in Vidalia, Georgia. Officers responded at about 9:11 p.m.; he was treated on scene, taken to Memorial Health Meadows Hospital in Vidalia, and then transferred to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, where he later died. The Vidalia Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation opened a homicide probe.

Investigators identified a suspect and on December 31, 2021, law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals Service, the GBI, and the Toombs County Sheriff’s Office arrested 30-year-old Tobias Kevion Bell of Vidalia. Bell was charged in connection with Williams-Jacobs’s death with felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony; he was held at the Toombs County Detention Center and denied bond. A grand jury later returned indictments for malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and firearm possession. Authorities continued to seek information from the public.

If anyone has information about Matthew, the shooting that night, or saw activity near Thompson and West Jenkins Streets or Orange Street on December 17, 2021, please come forward.