Ashanti Macon, 30, was fatally shot in the early evening of Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in an alley on Raines Lane behind the shopping center at Pio Nono and Montpelier Avenue in Macon, Georgia. She was on a ten-minute dinner break from her job at the Little Caesars in that shopping center when the shooting occurred. Paramedics responded to 911 calls around 7:50 p.m.; she was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead at 8:18 p.m. Her mother, Stacey Macon, drove by, saw the scene and discovered her daughter on the ground.

Family and co-workers remember Ashanti as an optimistic mother who took pride in her work and in caring for her five children, including one-year-old twins. Her aunt, Ashley Macon, said Ashanti found joy in almost anything; co-workers described being traumatized and fearful after the shooting. The family has called for justice and urged stronger security and more surveillance in high-crime areas.

After weeks of investigation, the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 22-year-old D’Michael Jenkins at Riverstone’s Apartments on Riverside Boulevard and charged him with murder; the investigation is ongoing. Did anyone in the Macon area see or hear anything in that shopping center alley on the evening of July 15 that could help investigators?