AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A 41-year-old man was arrested in connection to a 53-year-old woman’s death in Augusta.

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office says Samuel Howell was arrested on Wednesday in Summerville, S.C.

Howell was charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

The Richmond County Coroner’s Office said Monique Hawes, 53, lived on the 3600 block of Madrid Drive.

On August 17, Hawes was found with at least one gunshot wound, lying in the 200 block of Dan Bowles Road, according to the Richmond County Coroner’s Office.

She was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m., according to the coroner’s office.

The case is being investigated as a homicide, according to Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen.

Howell is currently booked in the Dorchester County Detention Center, and has a bond set for $100,000.

The shooting comes amid an outbreak of violent crime that’s claimed more than 170 lives in a little over two years across the CSRA.

The crime outbreak has affected communities large and small, but as the biggest city in the region, Augusta has been hit especially hard.

Authorities have blamed much of the problem on gangs.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office was made aware of a social media post, advising that A.R. Johnson Magnet School would be the target of a school shooting, authorities said Friday.

On Thursday, authorities say they were made aware of a social media post, advising that the school at 1324 Laney Walker Blvd. would be the target of a school shooting.

It came on the same day a gun was confiscated at Cross Creek High School and after a week when multiple weapons were found in Augusta schools.

During the course of the investigation, the source of the post, a juvenile, was identified and apprehended, according to authorities.

The juvenile was interviewed by law enforcement and did admit that this was a joke, and he had no intentions of shooting up the school, authorities say.

The juvenile did not have any access to weapons, authorities said. The juvenile was later detained by the Regional Youth Detention Center for terroristic threats and acts, according to deputies.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Bond was set at $50,000 Friday for the grandmother of a baby who died of hypothermia after being left in front of a cold air conditioner while wrapped in a wet blanket.

Meanwhile, the bond hearing for the child’s mother was delayed Friday to give public defenders more time.

Three suspects – the mother, September De’Asia Seright, 19; grandmother, Diane Lamisha Seright, 42; and Antonio Bennie Nash, 39, all of Washington – were charged with felony murder and child cruelty in the second degree.

Arrest warrants for the suspects allege that on Aug. 6, the child was left in a car safety seat, wrapped in a wet blanket, while September Seright was in the shower, with the child in the bathroom. That’s where the baby got wet.

She then placed the child in front of the air conditioner “for an unknown amount of time” while she was lying on a couch and the other two suspects were lying in a bed, according to the arrest warrants.

The baby, 3-month-old Josiah Noel Seright, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

At the bond hearing, District Attorney Jared Williams called the case “baffling” and the public defender called it “horrible for everyone involved.”

Williams said Lamisha Seright has acknowledged September Seright is “exceptionally and developmentally slow,” a condition of which the public defender said the defendant is “very aware.”

Williams accused Lamisha Seright of failing the baby by not checking in and caring for her own daughter.

“No one in the hotel room had sense to check on that baby in front of the air conditioner,” Williams said.

However, the public defender said at the hearing that Lamisha Seright is the one who called 911.

The public defender painted her as a mom doing her best with four kids.

She made money by driving to Augusta to give plasma, the public defender said.

The judge set her bond at $50,000 and said she’s to have no contact with the co-defendants.

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