Alleged driver arrested in deadly Smart Grocery shooting

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – An Augusta woman is behind bars after allegedly driving her co-defendant to the deadly shooting at an Augusta convenience store.

The Smart Grocery at 3221 Wrightsboro Road has been the site of at least nine shootings in recent years, and now, two have been fatal.

The most recent one claimed the life of Jeremiah Emmanuel Griffin, 32, of the 300 block of Fox Trace.

Around 8:30 p.m., the arrest warrant states that Tashanna Renee McDaniel, 21, did commit the offense of felony murder.

McDaniel’s co-defendant got into a fight with Griffin and shot him with a 9mm handgun, according to the affidavit.

McDaniel then reportedly fled the scene and did not report the shooting, the affidavit states.

According to the arrest warrant, McDaniel lives on the 3200 block of Wrightsboto Road.

The name of McDaniel’s co-defendant was redacted from the arrest warrant. McDaniel was booked into the Charles B. Webster Detention Center on Wednesday.

According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded there at 8:50 p.m. Monday to investigate a report of gunshots. Deputies found Griffin, and he was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. An autopsy has been scheduled.

The shooting is the latest in an outbreak of violence that’s claimed more than 100 lives in the past year and a half across the CSRA.

And some have been in that neighborhood of Augusta.

Smart Grocery is near some apartment complexes that have been trouble spots for crime, including the one where Griffin lived.

Smart Grocery and its immediate surroundings have been the site of several gun incidents in recent years. Among those incidents:

• In July, one person was sent to a hospital after another shooting at the store.
• In January 2023, a man was shot with his own gun in the 3200 block of Wrightsboro Road after an unknown person grabbed his pistol from his pocket and shot him with it as he tried to break up a fight.
• In September 2022, Zayquantez Jones, 17, was killed in a shooting at the store.
• In December 2021, two motorists fired gunshots at each other near the store before driving off in separate directions. One person was arrested.
• On Nov. 23, 2021, a man pointed a gun at a woman in the parking lot of the store as part of an apparent road-rage incident.
• In April 2021, a man was found in the parking lot of the store, injured after being shot at least twice.
• In March 2020, a shooting there wounded a bystander after a verbal altercation in the parking lot. Marcia Laquette Wimbley, 28, of Augusta, was taken into custody
• In November 2018, a victim was found in the parking lot of the store with at least two gunshot wounds in their mid-section.
• In May 2017, a man suffered wounds to a hand and thigh in a shooting at the store. The injuries were not life-threatening.

Last year, commissioners vowed to bring more funding to fight crime in the area.

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