On the evening of Thursday, February 19, 2026, in Thomaston, Georgia, 19-year-old Conner Welsey Walker was fatally shot. Deputies found Walker in an outbuilding at a Wiley Street residence with a gunshot wound to the head; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators identified the weapon as an AR-15 style rifle that belonged to Walker.

Upson County Sheriff’s investigators, assisted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, say Walker was in the outbuilding with two other people, including a 14-year-old male. The sheriff’s office reported the teen was handling the rifle without first clearing the chamber when it discharged and struck Walker. The juvenile was taken into custody and referred to Juvenile Court on misdemeanor charges of Reckless Conduct and Involuntary Manslaughter; he was scheduled for a hearing on Monday, February 23, and was to be held at a Regional Youth Detention Center pending that hearing. A third person at the scene witnessed the event and corroborated the account to law enforcement.

Walker’s grandmother remembered him as a brilliant kid and a great man who will sorely be missed; his father, a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, was killed in action in Iraq in 2007. A GoFundMe campaign was started to help with funeral expenses.

Did anyone in Thomaston see or hear anything that evening that could help clarify what happened in the outbuilding?