In the summer of 2013, the life of 19-year-old Marquez Daleno Smush Eubanks was cut tragically short. A native of Augusta, Georgia, and a promising young man, Eubanks was a graduate of Lucy C. Laney High School where he had excelled both academically and athletically, playing football for four years. His hard work had earned him an academic scholarship to Tuskegee University, and he was employed in the Environmental Services department at Georgia Regents Medical Center.
He had also attended Orangeburg-Calhoun Prep Academy, where he was pursuing studies in Physical Therapy.
On the night of Friday, July 19, 2013, Eubanks was at a house party on East Kensington Drive in Augusta. The gathering turned violent when gunfire erupted. Eubanks was shot and was later pronounced dead at the Georgia Regents Medical Center. Two other men were also wounded in the shooting. The incident was not a random act of violence but was believed by authorities to be a manifestation of escalating gang tensions in the area.
In the aftermath of the shooting, investigators quickly identified a suspect. Dijon Cortez Abbott, also 19 at the time, was arrested in connection with the homicide. Law enforcement officials reported that Abbott was a member of a south Augusta gang known as '23'rd.' The shooting was considered part of an ongoing conflict with a rival gang called '6Hunna' or '600.' This violent feud was a significant concern for local authorities, who had noted a rise in shootings related to gang activity.
The investigation linked Abbott and several other young men, aged 17 to 19, to another street shooting that had occurred outside a house party on Thames Drive the previous month, which was also deemed gang-related. The death of Marquez Eubanks highlighted the growing problem of gang violence in Richmond County, where law enforcement estimated the presence of about 30 different gangs.
