Shortly after 2:20 a.m. on Saturday, March 14, 2026, gunfire erupted in a downtown Athens, Georgia parking lot on North Jackson Street. Police found three people shot; 22-year-old Clayton Adams of Hull was pronounced dead at the scene. Nineteen-year-old Dylan Bentley of Jefferson died the next day, and 20-year-old Landon Skinner was hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the eye.

Investigators arrested 22-year-old Mark Desousa of Jefferson; he faces charges including malice murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI assisted the Athens-Clarke County Police. Family accounts say Adams and Bentley were trying to help the wounded Skinner when they were shot, and friends remembered Adams as full of life. An obituary listed funeral services and a visitation the following weekend.

Did anyone in the Athens area see or hear anything that night or know the people involved?