City budgets extra $2 million to combat gun violence in 2027. How police are addressing recent shootings.

Dublin’s mayor and city council are taking recent gun crimes in the city seriously, and have set aside an additional $2 million in funding to support the police department’s efforts to crack down in their 2027 budget.

According to Mayor Joshua Kight, the $10 million total allocated for the department represents approximately 40 percent of the general fund budget.

“It is our No. 1 priority,” Kight said. “We want to maintain safety in this community.” 

Kight and the council were made aware that there had been an unusual amount of incidents involving people shooting guns, and after seeing those numbers, spoke with Dublin City Manager Josh Powell and Dublin Police Chief Keith Moon.

“We wanted to get a handle on what was going on and if there were any resources and tools that we could offer to assist with the manpower, support and technology (for the DPD),” Kight said. “Basically, we wanted to make sure we stayed on top of this situation.”

Earlier this week, Kight, council members, city staff and officials with the DPD held multiple meetings to discuss the investsigations. Kight has been pleased with the progress.

“We’ve had arrests on multiple suspects that covers majority of the cases that we’ve seen over the last few weeks,” Kight said. “It does appears that there were a few people that were causing a lot of the problems, and a lot of those are now in jail.” 

But there is still work to be done, he added. Going into summer, city officials want the DPD to have the resources it needs to keep the streets and neighborhoods safe.

“With the resources that we have, and the technology that we have at our disposal, if you shoot a gun in the city of Dublin, the police will be there very quickly,” Kight said. “We’ll have the resources, technology and the partnerships with state and federal agencies to track you down and put you in jail. That is what has happened so far. We are going to continue to work these cases and make sure that anybody who commits these kind of crimes, and endangers the public, will go to jail.”

Moon said his department recognized what was happening and deployed extra officers.

“Then the mayor and council wanted to know what they could do to support us,” Moon said. 

Moon went through a list of shootings that occurred beginning on May 6 when an alleged dice game led to a young man being shot. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to to look into the incident because of the amount of gunshot wounds to the victim, who survived. 

Also on May 6, just around the corner at Vinson Village, two suspects fired shots at an apartment. Suspects have not been identified and the GBI continues to investigate this case, Moon said.

“It is thought to be connected to the first shooting,” the chief said.

On May 7, a victim called and said that her brother was approached by a person thought to have been at the dice game.

“Their apartment (in Vinson Village) was shot at, so we know those are connected,” Moon said.

On May 17, around 7:17 p.m., officers responded to a Flock Alert regarding multiple shots fired at the Z-Mart on Telfair Street. An officer was advised that multiple spent shell casings were found in the road and in the parking lot in front of the store. Several spent shells were located near a fuel pump. Shattered glass was also seen around the pump.

Moon said De’Sentae Lewis, 17, and a juvenile were arrested and charged.

Around 11 p.m. on May 21, two people were shot on Brookwood Drive. Multiple shots were fired and many shells were recovered. No arrests have been made. 

On May 25, around 2:10 p.m., officers responded to Robert Street Apartments in response to a Flock Alert of shots fired. Letravous Dashuwn Reese, 18, was arrested and charged with firing at two people who were walking down the road, Moon said. 

“An arrest was made two hours afterwards,” Moon said.

These are examples of how the technology works.

“When the gunshot detection goes off, you have Flock cameras, live view cameras and license plate readers that can capture information of what’s happening in the area where gunshots go off,” Kight said. “That’s an example of how investments in those technologies led to an arrest.” 

On May 31, around 5:54 a.m., on West Moore Street, a house was shot at multiple times. There were no injuries and the DPD continues to investigate. On June 1, around midnight, suspects fired shots into a house on East Johnson Street and a woman was hit in the leg. The local police department is also working that case. 

“We know there is always going to be some level of crime happening in town,” Kight said. “Our job as elected officials is to make sure the police department has everything it needs to make sure we don’t have a surge (in gun crimes). We have to keep it down to the lowest level possible.”

Additional overtime hours have been authorized and the city has asked for additional assistance from the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies.

“We are actively, vigilantly and persistently going after every incident,” Kight said. “Many are already in jail and the rest will be in jail soon.”