Derrick Howard, 49, a Black male from Macon, Georgia, died on May 29, 2020, after a burst of gunfire shattered the early-morning darkness on Fair Street. According to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and local news reports, deputies were called to 3580 Fair Street around 12:20 a.m. after witnesses said two men were involved in an altercation when a third man approached, pulled a handgun, and opened fire.
Howard was struck and taken from the scene to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Another man, 60-year-old Stacey Van Battle, was killed in the same shooting.
The case moved quickly in its first hours. Investigators identified Anthony Toraild Whitehead, 23, as the suspect and arrested him later that same day in connection with the killings of Howard and Van Battle. Reports from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and multiple Macon television stations said Whitehead was charged with two counts of murder. Authorities also said he faced a separate probation-violation charge and was being held at the Bibb County jail without bond.
What emerges from the online reporting is the picture of a deadly encounter that escalated in moments: a fight already underway, a third man stepping in with a gun, and two lives ending before sunrise on a residential Macon street. Howard’s death was publicly noted in obituary notices published after the shooting, confirming May 29, 2020, as the day he died and tying his name back to Macon, the city where the violence unfolded.
