It started with a missing phone and $100 sent through Cash App. It ended with 11 shots fired at a car as it pulled away from the Academy Sports parking lot on Eisenhower Parkway. Tajiri Harris, the man who fired those shots, was sentenced by the Court on October 20, 2026 in Bibb County Superior Court to 20 years to serve in the Georgia Department of Corrections after a jury convicted him of five counts of Aggravated Assault. The State asked the Court for the maximum of 100 years, which equaled 20 years on each count.
On April 26, 2022, a group of victims, including teens between the ages of 13 and 15 and a 21-year-old, went to the Academy store on Eisenhower Parkway to meet Harris’s sister. The sister had taken the 21-year-old’s phone and used it to send herself $100 through Cash App. Harris had told his sister to have the group meet at Academy Sports, and he arrived before they did.
When the victims arrived, Harris’s sister and her boyfriend rushed their car, spitting on and punching the driver. As the victims drove away, Harris fired 11 shots at the car, based on the number of shell casings recovered at the scene. Crime scene investigators found eight bullet markings on the vehicle.
The victims drove to Southwest High School on Williamson Road, where a deputy responding to a call about a person shot found Tavias Williams wounded in the back seat. The deputy performed CPR until EMS arrived. Williams died from his injuries.
When interviewed by Bibb County Sheriff’s Office investigators, Harris lied about where he had been that night. Witnesses, including Harris’s own sister, told law enforcement he was at Academy Sports, and a forensic analysis of his phone placed him at the scene at the time of the shooting. Three of the bullets that struck Williams were fired from a gun later found at Harris’s home. On the stand during trial, however, Harris claimed he acted in self-defense by shooting at the fleeing car. While no weapon was found, witness testimony confirmed the teens had a gun in the vehicle during the altercation.
“A dispute over a phone and $100 ended with a young man dead and another serving 20 years in prison,” said Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Anita Howard. “This situation should have had a very different outcome. Rather than call police when the phone was stolen, young people with guns decided to take the law into their own hands. Unfortunately, during the investigation, several witnesses refused to cooperate, tell the truth and assist law enforcement and prosecutors in understanding exactly what happened that day. When people don’t assist law enforcement in pursuing justice, they make it difficult for juries to determine what happened and who was at fault.”
This case was prosecuted by Chief of Staff Kyle Owenby and Senior Assistant District Attorney Willie Saunders.
