Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office looks to make more arrests in Saturday shooting incident

ALBANY – When gunfire erupted in downtown Albany on Saturday night, J. Lane Theater owner Je’Nita Lane was standing in the doorway as concertgoers were outside waiting to get into the venue. What ensued was panic and confusion.

“I definitely heard it,” Lane said. “I never heard anything like that. I was trying to get inside and I fell. I fell and they kept trampling over me trying to get (inside) away from what was outside. Because of the (gun)shots, the people were running. They were falling over each other. Somebody pulled me into the ticket booth.”

At the time, about 60 people were inside and there was a large crowd outside waiting to get in for the concert that had been scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies showed up to disperse the crowd, and it was about 10:30 p.m., when that police presence was most substantial, that the gunfire erupted.

Before she made a dash to get inside, Lane, who has owned the theater for about four years, said she saw flashes in the vicinity of a parking lot located between the Pine Avenue venue and the post office on West Broad Avenue.

Entry was slowed by the large crowd that had started arriving two hours early as the staff did double pat-downs of individuals before allowing them to enter, and there were a large number of people waiting in line, Lane said. About 15 theater security personnel were in the building, and extra off-duty Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office deputies were outside.

The event was geared toward Albany State University students, who were celebrating homecoming, Lane said. The gunfire started after officers from multiple law enforcement agencies showed up to disperse the crowd and had announced that the event was being canceled.

“It was very strange how the shooting started after all this law enforcement was there,” she said. “It actually happened across the street. The crowd panicked, and they just started running and that’s what started the commotion.”

So far, the sheriff’s office, which is the lead agency in the investigation, has arrested two men and more arrests are expected.

Sheriff’s deputies, who were working the event as off-duty security officers, were assisted by officers with the Albany Police Department, Dougherty County Police Department and Georgia State Patrol, Dougherty County Sheriff Terron Hayes said. 

Quentavious Tyson, 22, and Dey’ontaye Sampson, 23, have been taken into custody in connection with the incident. One firearm has been recovered. Investigators believe that there may have been an exchange of gunfire linked to something that occurred outside.

“It’s still under investigation, and we’re looking to make more arrests as we gather more evidence and identify more individuals involved,” Hayes said. “That’s our interpretation, that it was an argument or a fight that went down. That’s one thing we are looking at.”

The sheriff identified the victim, who showed up later at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, as Jabez Allen, 19. He was treated and released from the hospital.

In listening to audio, it was obvious that there were gunshots from multiple weapons, Albany Police Chief Michael Persley said during a Monday morning news conference.

“You could tell just by listening it was more than one caliber,” he said.

The department provided additional resources and extra patrols during the homecoming weekend to monitor events and provide police presence in the areas where events were happening during the weekend, the chief said.

Albany is not alone in having violence recently, and Persley said that Albany should not be singled out as an unsafe city.

“I call it (the weekend) a success because everybody who went somewhere went home,” he said. “What makes it sad is the majority of people just want to have a good time. There were over 400 people gathered as officers were working to disperse the crowd (and) several shots were fired.”

Deputy Katarrion Harris, who loudly urged individuals to get down after the gunfire erupted, may have prevented a worse situation, the sheriff said. 

“He did an outstanding job,” Hayes said. “In our eyes, he’s a hero. He saved a lot of folks and caused the incident to not be worse.”

The gunfire was the first time there has been any kind of violent incident in the vicinity of the theater during an event, Lane said.

The Saturday event was not an Albany-State-sponsored gathering, University Marketing and Communications Specialist Rachel Lawrence said.

“It didn’t have anything to do with Albany State,” she said. “It didn’t have anything to do with Albany State in any way.”

Tyson and Sampson have each been charged with aggravated assault, reckless conduct and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. In addition, Tyson was charged with obstruction.