One person dead in Social Circle after Sunday shooting

As of Monday, March 12, 2012
© Copyright 2013 Newton Citizen

By Aimee Jones

Staff Correspondent

SOCIAL CIRCLE — The Social Circle Police Department has made an arrest in the shooting death of a Social Circle man on Sunday.

Preston Holt, 45, has been arrested in connection with the death 31-year-old Dana Baynes.

Social Circle Public Safety Director Tom Fox said preliminary reports indicate that a birthday party was taking place Sunday in a residence near 420 Holly St. when sometime around 9:45 p.m. the victim walked up to a vehicle that was parked on the street outside the home, where he was then shot.

“It appears that after the victim was shot, some people attempted to help him by placing him in another vehicle to take him to the hospital,” Fox said.

He said members of the police department arrived on the scene and were able to get Baynes into an ambulance. He was transported to Walton Medical Center where he later died, Fox said.

Fox said the suspect left the scene, but witness statements helped police officers locate him. Holt was then arrested and is currently being held at the Walton County Jail.

“The victim and the perpetrator apparently knew each other, but the motive for the shooting is not clear,” said Fox in a statement released Monday evening.

Fox said the Walton County Sheriff’s Department, the Walton County District Attorney’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are assisting in the ongoing investigation.

This is the first murder in more than two years in Social Circle, Fox said.

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