On Monday afternoon, December 18, 2023, 22-year-old Aaron Sonny Pierce of Dublin, Georgia, was shot on North Racetrack Street in Swainsboro and taken to Emanuel Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead from a gunshot wound. Known as Lil Aaron, he was a 2001-born East Laurens High School graduate remembered for baseball, football and wrestling and for an outgoing personality.

Swainsboro Police officers secured the scene and learned a victim had been taken to the hospital; while some officers remained on North Racetrack Street, others went to the emergency room. Additional responding officers apprehended an 18-year-old Swainsboro resident, Tydreke Santele Jacobe Carlton, after a brief foot chase. About 30 minutes later a separate shooting at the same location left at least one other person injured and sent to a hospital in Augusta.

Pierce’s family has retained counsel to examine possible security negligence at the property where the shooting occurred, and the Swainsboro Police Department continues to investigate. If anyone knew Aaron or has information about the shootings or the property’s security, please share what is known.