Reward offered for information
Teen murdered with assault rifle
By Elizabeth Billips Associate Editor

A Waynesboro teenager was shot to death with an assault rifle.

Damian Antwion Wright, 16, was murdered in the front yard of a Westgate home Sunday night following what Police Chief Karl E. Allen says was a heated argument with a man nicknamed "Miami."

The teenager was already recuperating from a gunshot he took to his lower abdomen 18 days prior.

According to Gary Nicholson, special agent in charge of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Thomson Office, Wright was shot once in the arm and once in the forehead.

Witnesses said Wright also fired a weapon, but investigators have not determined whether it was before or after he was hit with the first shot.

According to Burke County Coroner Betty White, the teenager was pronounced dead at Burke Medical Center a short time later. "The shot to the head was the fatal shot," she said, noting that it exited through the back of the skull.

Waynesboro police are offering a "substantial" reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the man known as Miami.

He was last seen fleeing the murder scene in a white 1993 Bonneville he stole from one of the witnesses.

An APB was put out on the car that night, but no one has seen it and police fear the alleged killer has left the area.

With only his street name to go on, officers say Miami is described as a black man in his early 30s.

At this point, investigators don't believe the murder and July 18 shooting are immediately related.

According to a police report detailing the July shooting, Wright was shot in the side during a large fight at Magnolia Acres, just over a mile from the murder scene.

Witnesses told police Wright was accidentally shot by his cousin, Rickey Hughes, who'd intended to shoot someone else. Police Investigator Claude Wade said he'd been working on the case for several weeks, but that Wright had refused to cooperate with officers.

In the meantime, police and GBI agents are hoping someone will step up with a tip that might lead them to Miami, or at least to his real identity.

Anyone with information is asked to call Waynesboro police investigators at 706-554-8029.