AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Murder suspects and victims seem to be getting younger and younger, if local cases are any indication.

Just Thursday, Richmond County deputies reported that a 14-year-old had been arrested as the suspect in a murder Sunday at the Olmstead Homes.

And that followed Sunday’s arrest of a 15-year-old as the suspect in the shooting death of a 14-year-old April 20 at the Cedarwood Apartments on Richmond Hill Road in Augusta.

On April 27, a 14-year-old girl was shot to death as she slept at her home off Bayshore Drive in Fairfax.

That same day, a 5-year-old was nearly shot in Allendale while sitting in a car that was shot up.

And just a few days earlier, also in Allendale County, an 11-year-old was injured in a shooting.

Murder often strikes young victims here – like when 8-year-old Arbrie Anthony was killed by during a 2022 drive-by shooting or when 13-year-old Buddy Brown was shot outside his family’s apartment in downtown Augusta in 2023.

It’s all part of a two-year outbreak of violent crime that’s killed more than 150 people across the CSRA on both sides of the Savannah River.

Authorities blame gangs for a lot of the violence.

As a result, the suspects are often young, too.

Law enforcement officials have said solutions will need to come from parents and the community – solutions that don’t happen with just talk but with having boots on the ground every day.

We’ve reported on community resources like the Purpose Center’s Men in Training Program, which aims to partner adults with children to mentor and shape them.

Through May, Steven O’Neil with Augusta Partnership for Children is hosting what he’s calling the Manhood Tour.

Every Wednesday, the tour is hosting sessions at May Park Community Center.

It’s a space where men of all ages gather to support and encourage each other by providing resources and information in an open discussion.

“There’s not enough programs out there for men. And with the things that’s going on in the community today, we feel like that men are most importantly needing these programs.. so we can restructure and change the dynamics and the stereotypes of men today,” said David Mew, Manhood Tour CEO.

It’s designed to be another resource for men in the community to take advantage of reaching their goals, get them on the right path and generate solutions.

They’re doing so with conversations.

“We challenge men in the youth, young males to think differently, think outside of their friend zones, think outside of their neighborhoods, think outside of their communities,” said Mew.

O’Neil says there’s an urgent need in this community in terms of providing resources to young men.

“You’re still in the process of developing as a person, specifically as a man. And so we want to get our youth, particularly our young men, at an early age because we can kind of mold them and kind of guide them in the right direction,” said O’Neil.

Violence is an issue that has a major impact on our community – from schools to home to everywhere.

Manhood Tour Facilitator Corri Gordon said: “We started out in the neighborhoods. And we went from the neighborhood to the schools. We’re going from the schools to the to the courtroom system. So we are now branching out.”

O’Neil says the Manhood Tour meets young men where they are and works with them to instill good, strong foundations for them as they grow in adulthood.

Time will tell whether this is the solution that will finally work.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A 36-year-old child molestation suspect has been captured in North Augusta.

On Saturday, the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office said a child molestation happened in the 3800 block of Peach Orchard Road.

They said Randall Reddick, of North Augusta, was wanted in connection with the incident and had active warrants on file.

He was arrested Sunday by the North Augusta Department of Public Safety, according to Aiken County jail records.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

(Editor’s note: A previous online version of this story should have included the current photo of the Prontaut-Henry House.)

More of Augusta’s history is being preserved, but not without important help.

Four Augusta properties recently joined 21 others statewide in being recognized as exceptional examples of historic preservation by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Much of the owners’ successes in protecting these buildings can be attributed to the number of tax incentives and grants available to historic-property owners who want to protect their investments but lack readily available funds. Contact the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ Historic Preservation Division by visiting www.dca.ga.gov/georgia-historic-preservation-division to learn more about the full array of available state, federal and private preservation funds.

Force-Jackson House, 922 Greene St.

Built in 1853, the Italianate-style was a private home until the YWCA moved in by 1916 from cramped quarters above a drug store at Seventh and Broad streets. By 1993 it was home to St. Stephen’s Ministry, a transitional housing facility for homeless people with HIV and AIDS.

In 2019, Paul King of Rex Properties began a $1.6 million project renovating 922 Greene into apartments. The planned number of apartments fluctuated, but the home became 12 apartments, with the original floor plan mostly intact while preserving floors, doors, windows, mantels and exterior elements.

Perkins-Cullum House, 510 Greene St.

The home was built in 1902 by Henry C. Perkins, who in 1891 founded the machine shop that became GIW, or Georgia Iron Works. His daughter Gertrude Perkins Cullum, wife of Augusta department store owner St. Julian Cullum, inherited the house in 1928. She established the Cullum School of Speech Reading, a school in the back yard for people with hearing problems, and the Augusta Club for the Hard of Hearing.

Becoming apartments and for a short time a ceramics workshop, the building’s condition declined until local preservation group Historic Augusta posted the house on its 2015 Endangered Properties List.

In converting the house to eight apartments, owners Mark and Christy Beckham kept the original floor plan and the house’s heart-pine floors, doors and mosaic porch.

Prontaut-Henry House, 407 Telfair St.

The house dates to about 1875 and until the mid-20th century was a private home. Later serving as law offices and the district office for U.S. Rep. Doug Barnard, the vacant property made Historic Augusta’s 2019 Endangered List.

Owner Mark Donahue kept not only the heart-pine floors but also original plaster, trim and window frames when redesigning the house. It’s now six loft-style apartments, with new heating-and-air systems, modern kitchens and updated plumbing.

Augusta Warehouse & Compress Co., 1812 Slaton St.

Designed by famed Southern architect Lloyd Preacher in 1916, the Augusta Warehouse & Compress Co. is the only remaining cotton warehouse complex from the early 20th century in Augusta. It once could hold up to 60,000 bales of cotton. The “compress” in the name refers to the process when bales from cotton gins are compressed to half-size for easier transport.

Albany-based developer Pace Burt converted the 35 industrial compartments into 140 apartments collectively renamed The Loft.

“Facing challenges like severely neglected roofs and the need to balance existing character with modern needs, the preservation effort successfully retained the district’s historical significance,” according to the Georgia Trust.