On January 5, 2026, a Coffee County deputy responded to the Jet store on Highway 441 South in reference to a call you don’t hear much anymore – a gas drive-off. The incident actually happened around 2 p.m. on January 3 when Matthew Rashad Deen, 24, of Douglas, went to the store to buy diesel fuel for his 2015 Chevrolet pickup. According to a report from the sheriff’s office, Deen handed the store manager a debit card so she would turn on the pump. The card, however, was not in Deen’s name. With a presumably working debit card in hand,…
Author: Staff Reports
Traffic stops at 3 a.m. often end up being more than just traffic stops. Here’s another such case. On December 20, 2025, just before 3 a.m., a Douglas police officer made a stop at Peterson Avenue and Franklin Street. There was a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. The driver, 46-year-old Sara Ann Williams, stated that she had been smoking marijuana in the vehicle and she didn’t have a valid driver’s license, according to the incident report. The officer ran her information and discovered that her license was suspended and she had an active warrant for theft by…
A 21-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated assault on December 17, 2025, after he allegedly pointed a gun at another individual during an argument on East Wilson Street. According to an incident report from the Douglas Police Department, officers responded to an East Wilson Street address in reference to a threatening incident. The report states that Cesar Vargas, 21, went to the house with Yosimar Garcia to pick up Garcia’s daughter from Luis Mendez. Mendez and Garcia are married but separated; Vargas and Garcia are currently in a relationship, according to the report. While at the house, Vargas and…
Friday night, a Coffee County jury convicted Quan’Terris Rashaud Brockington of five counts following a week-long trial, including malice murder and felony murder. Brockington had been arrested and charged in the December 24, 2021, shooting that killed a one-year-old child and seriously injured a 36-year-old man. Authorities believed that Brockington fatally shot the child and also shot Jeremy Gillespie, 36. Brockington was arrested on New Forest Highway in Douglas and booked into the Coffee County Jail. He was charged with felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault (two counts), aggravated battery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a…
Joe Sports, a journalist, lobbyist, political consultant, author, veteran, and former Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, has passed away. He was 91. Joe was born in Douglas on October 17, 1934, the son of Mae and Elisha Sports. He had an older brother, Don, and a younger sister, Ann. He began working at The Douglas Enterprise while still in high school and while attending then-South Georgia College. Joe was associate editor when drafted into the U.S. Army in 1957. In February of that year, Joe married Dee Plymell, a medical technician at the Douglas-Coffee County Hospital. As…
On January 6, 2026, between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., approximately 25,000 gallons of wastewater was discharged into an unnamed tributary of the Seventeen Mile River. The incident happened due to deterioration of the force main sewer pipe. The City of Douglas released the following statement: “As a precaution, it is recommended that citizens have no contact with the affected stream water until after 01/20/2026. Wastewater Treatment Plant staff will be sampling the waterway both upstream and downstream of the spill to ensure that the water quality has not been adversely affected. Sampling will be conducted for dissolved oxygen concentration,…
Several local elections will take place in 2026. Here are the election dates and qualifying fees for this year’s election cycle. Special elections will take place on March 17 with any runoff taking place on April 14 (there are no local special elections scheduled this year); general primary/non-partisan election will be held on May 19 with a runoff, if necessary, taking place on June 16. The general election will take place on November 3 with the runoff, if necessary, being held on December 1. The local elections on the ballot are: The qualifying fees for the elections are as follows:…
For the second time in just over a month, a Jesup woman has been arrested and jailed as a result of a domestic-related incident. A report from the Douglas Police Department states that on December 20, 2025, at around 5:30 p.m., officers went to a Lakeshore Drive address in reference to a domestic dispute in progress. When the officer arrived, the report says he saw a female in a red shirt run around the house. The complainant told the officers that the female, identified as Kayla Danielle Gruber, 36, of Jesup, ran off when she saw the police. The complainant…
A disorderly person call at 2:15 p.m. on December 21, 2025, at the Dollar Tree on Southeast Bowens Mill Road ended up sending a 39-year-old Douglas woman to jail on a burglary warrant. According to a report from the Douglas Police Department, officers arrived at the Dollar Tree and found Kari Holton Lowther, 39, upset because she said she was being accused of shoplifting by the manager. The report says that Lowther stated that she had a separate basket of items that she had decided she didn’t want and was going to put back on the shelf. The manager said…
On December 20, 2025, at around 6:30 p.m., a 23-year-old woman allegedly ran her mother’s car into another vehicle intentionally, causing damage and pushing the vehicle 165 feet during the incident. According to a report from the Douglas Police Department, officers responded to a Bryan Street Circle address in reference to a vehicle crash. When the officer arrived, he spoke to Shasmine Nariyah Sirmans, 23, of Douglas, who stated that the father of her child had pulled a gun on her. The report says that after the incident occurred, “she blacked out, entered her mother’s black 2017 Chevrolet Suburban, followed…