A Walthourville man narrowly escaped injury Thursday after someone shot through his front door, according to the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s Detective James Snider said the man was sleeping on a fold-out couch bed in the living room of his mobile home on Phenela Lane around noon. Snider said the assailants drove to the home in an older-model black SUV, pulled up and fired one round from a shotgun, blowing a hole through the door and missing the man by inches.
The man was awakened by the blast and ran into another section of the home and called 911.
Walthourville police Chief Bernie Quarterman, who responded to the shooting scene along with Officer Jerald Burgess, said the victim, identified as Christopher Lewis, was able to provide the name and location of two of the men — Johnathan Young, 24, and Daniel Ruiz, 27, who he said were in the vehicle. A third man was in the vehicle Young and Ruiz, Quarterman said.
The men fled the scene and were later located in the Eagle Creek Mobile Home Park on Brantley Drive in Hinesville.
When officers arrived, the men spotted them and barricaded themselves inside the residence. One man was able to leave the home before officers had a chance to surround it. He fled into the woods and was still at large Thursday evening, Snider said.
After a brief standoff during which no shots were fired, Young and Ruiz gave themselves up and were immediately placed under arrest, Snider said. Snider said one man is facing an aggravated assault charge while the other is facing obstruction of justice charges, with more pending, and it was not clear who would be charged with what offense. They are currently in the Liberty County Jail.
Young and Ruiz each have been charged with aggravated assault and burglary charges. The third man is still at large.
Quarterman said the burglary charges stem from a home burglary before Young and Ruiz allegedly fired into the home. They and the man still at large are beleived to have broken into a home on Middleton Lane, just outside Walthourville. They allegedly stole weapons from the home that were later recovered from the Eagle Creek home.
A rifle and a crossbow were recovered from the suspects’ vehicle.