A 47-year-old Macon, Ga., woman has been released on bond after being arrested for firing warning shots that critically-wounded a Black teen who allegedly threw rocks at her home.
The suspect, Elisabeth Faye Cannon, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and booked into the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center Monday, Jan. 16. After being released on a nearly $14,000 bond the following day, Cannon told local news outlet 13 WMAZ that she is not a bad person and did not intend to harm anyone.
“I didn’t wanna hit anyone in the head, I did not want to kill anyone. I just wanted all this to stop. We just wished they’d stopped,” Cannon told reporters.
Around 8 p.m. Monday, Bibb County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call that someone had been shot near Cannon’s home. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the victim, 15-year-old Vernon Marcus Jr., with a gunshot wound to the head, The Telegraph reported. EMTs rushed the teen to a nearby medical facility, where he is listed in stable but critical condition.
Cannon said Marcus and two to three other teens started throwing rocks at her home months ago, but last week, she said, “things got worse.” She said, starting last Thursday, the teens threw rocks at her home for five days in a row. She said she called the police — again.
“We didn’t holler or do anything else,” Cannon said. “We called the police and gave them a description.”
The situation came to a head Monday, though. Cannon told reporters that the teens returned and started throwing rocks not only at her house and car but also at her. That’s when she said she “had no other choice.”
“I started shooting in their direction. They started running,” Cannon said.
During Cannon’s bond hearing on Tuesday, however, Bibb County Sheriff’s Sgt. Pamela Williams testified that the woman hurled racial slurs and epithets at the teens on the day of the shooting.
The sheriff’s office also has gone on record saying Cannon may have used excessive force during Monday’s incident, 13 WMAZ reported.
