Makel Jones was 19 when he was shot and killed on the 2000 block of Bolt Drive in Augusta just before midnight on April 1, 2024. The shooting followed an altercation in which a male acquaintance struck Jones’s sister; Jones intervened and told the man to keep his hands off her. The man reportedly left and returned with a 40-caliber handgun, then shot Jones in the stomach. Jones was taken to Wellstar MCG and pronounced dead at 12:37 a.m. on April 2, 2024.

Jones was a father to a one-year-old boy, active at the Boys and Girls Club, and is survived by an identical twin brother. The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office identified 27-year-old Dominique Dezel Beal as the primary suspect and has issued an arrest warrant charging him with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime; a manhunt is underway. Investigators are also seeking 27-year-old Denzel Shaw for questioning; he has multiple outstanding warrants through the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals and is known to frequent the same neighborhoods as Beal.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Dominique Dezel Beal or Denzel Shaw is asked to contact investigators.