In the early morning hours of December 21, 2024, a shooting at a Circle K gas station on Highway 90 in Waveland, Mississippi, claimed the life of 19-year-old LaDaibrien Jevon Acker. Police responded to a call at 1:33 a.m. and discovered Acker in the parking lot with gunshot wounds to his chest. He was transported to Ochsner Medical Center, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
Acker, a resident of Waveland, was a new father to a four-month-old son and was remembered by his mother as an artist who quietly performed many beautiful acts of kindness throughout his life. His family emphasized that he was unarmed at the time of the incident.
The altercation also resulted in injury to a woman who was shot in the arm; she was later released from the hospital. Following the incident, police arrested 22-year-old Robert George Sams Jr., of Kiln, in connection with the shooting. Sams was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault and was booked into the Hancock County jail just after 8 a.m. on the same day. Initially, he was held without bond pending his first court appearance.
In a development that caused distress to Acker's family, Robert George Sams Jr. was later released from jail on a total bond of $200,000. Waveland Municipal Court Judge Preston J. Mauffray set the bond at $150,000 for the first-degree murder charge and $50,000 for the aggravated assault charge. The victim's family expressed their struggle to comprehend why a suspect facing such a serious charge would be free on a bond amount they considered low, particularly as state guidelines for non-capital crimes involving a death recommend a bond between $10,000 and $1 million. The Hancock County Jail Warden noted that the $150,000 bond was the lowest he had seen for a murder charge before a preliminary hearing.
