A Clarke County grand jury this week indicted two purported Athens gang members for a shootout that occurred last summer on the west side of town.
Jeffrey O’Neal Rice, 19, who police said is a member of the 2 Tuff gang, allegedly shot at a member of the rival NBA gang from a moving car on Baxter Street in June. His intended target, 22-year-old Dequarius Quantez Thornton, allegedly shot back at the car, according to police.
Rice was quickly arrested after an officer who was on patrol in the area saw what happened and assisted in a subsequent traffic stop on the car Rice was in. Thornton was arrested days later after investigators identified him as the other person involved in the shootout.
Grand jurors charged both Rice and Thornton with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, carrying a concealed weapon without a license and violating the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, according to the indictment filed Tuesday in Clarke County Superior Court. Rice was additionally charged with discharging a firearm near a public highway.
Though no one was injured in the Baxter Drive shootout, the incident kept alive a bitter and violent rivalry that has claimed two lives.
Jordorian “Jojo” Randolph, an 18-year-old purported NBA member was killed in May 2014 during a drive-by shooting on Westchester Circle. Police said NBA gang members immediately retaliated in a drive-by shooting in the Deer Park neighborhood in which three 2 Tuff gang members were wounded.
When the two gangs clashed on “Black Road” in November, two innocent bystanders were shot, one killed instantly, and area homes and vehicles were sprayed with bullets. The death of 23-year-old Breana Blackwell is being investigated as a homicide, for which no one has been charged.
Neither Rice nor Thornton was in custody this week, as both were granted bond following their arrests.
They are scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 16 in Clarke County Superior Court.
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