In the late hours of a September evening in 2020, the life of 29-year-old Carl Collins Jr. was tragically cut short in Augusta, Georgia. A Black male, Collins had not long before moved back to the area from Atlanta during the initial year of the pandemic. On the night of September 22nd, after 11 p.m., deputies from the Richmond County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to Old Barton Chapel Road following reports of gunfire and a person down.
There, they found Collins in the middle of the road, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. He was urgently transported to a local hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he died on September 23, 2020.
The investigation into the death of Carl Collins Jr. was quickly determined to be a homicide. Authorities were told by a witness that a white SUV was seen in the vicinity of the shooting, leaving the scene and heading towards Old McDuffie and Millersville roads. Investigators learned that an altercation had likely taken place just before the shooting. Despite his family stating that he did not know anyone in that particular area, law enforcement indicated that Collins was known to frequent the Barton Village neighborhood. His family expressed that he was not the type of person to get into a vehicle with someone he did not know, which added to the mystery of the circumstances leading to his death.
As time has passed, the murder of Carl Collins Jr. has remained unsolved, becoming a cold case for the Richmond County Sheriff's Office. In June of 2023, his father made a public plea for any information that could lead to an arrest in his son's case, expressing the profound pain and lack of closure the family continues to endure. He shared that his son had a past that included a conviction for armed robbery, for which he had served time in prison. However, his family remembers him as a beloved father to his three children. To date, no suspects have been publicly identified, and no arrests have been announced in connection with the shooting death of Carl Collins Jr. The Richmond County Sheriff's Office continues to seek information from the public to bring justice to his family.
