Georgia · Buford, Gwinnett County · Crime & Courts

Buford, GA Shooting Outside the Tavern at Mall of Georgia: Jalyn Watkins, 22, Charged, Bystander Hurt

Police say a man who had been removed from the Tavern fired one round into the ground outside, and shrapnel struck a 25-year-old bystander in the back. Two newsrooms report Jalyn Watkins, 22, faces aggravated assault and three firearm counts. He has not been convicted of anything.

What police say happened outside the Tavern

A 25-year-old man was hurt outside the Tavern at Mall of Georgia in Buford after police say a single round was fired into the ground there. Two newsrooms carry that account: Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta.

The sequence, as police describe it, has three steps. A man who "appeared to be intoxicated" was put out of the restaurant — Atlanta News First reports he "was kicked out of Tavern," and FOX 5 Atlanta reports he "had been removed from the business." He then, in the language of the reporting, allegedly went to a vehicle for a handgun. Atlanta News First: "He then allegedly got a handgun from a car and fired one round into the ground." FOX 5 Atlanta: "He fired one round into the ground, causing shrapnel to strike a 25-year-old man."

One person was hurt, and police say he was not part of any of it. Atlanta News First reports that "shrapnel kicked up and hit a nearby 25-year-old man in the back, according to police." FOX 5 Atlanta carries the police line "the victim had no involvement in the incident" and reports the injuries were non-life-threatening. No death appears in either account compiled here.

Both accounts name the same man as arrested: Jalyn Watkins, 22. Atlanta News First reports he "faces one count of aggravated assault and three firearm charges." FOX 5 Atlanta reports that "22-year-old Jalyn Watkins was arrested."

Read the verbs. Every step above is an account given by police and published by two newsrooms — not a court finding. Watkins is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent.

Exactly where: Mall of Georgia, off Georgia Boulevard

FOX 5 Atlanta gives the location as outside the Tavern at Mall of Georgia, off Georgia Boulevard in Buford. Atlanta News First places the sequence at the Tavern as well, reporting that the man was "kicked out of Tavern."

That is the whole geography on the record here: a named restaurant, a named mall, a street name and a city. There is no street number, no suite, no parking-deck level and no description of how far from a door anything happened.

We keep the street name exactly as it was written. FOX 5 Atlanta says Georgia Boulevard, and this page repeats Georgia Boulevard rather than lengthening it, shortening it or swapping in a route number.

This page carries no map, no plotted point and no coordinates. Nothing we compiled contains a latitude and longitude, so nothing here is drawn on a map. An approximate pin over a mall complex would look like precision and would not be any.

When it happened, and what the record fixes

Atlanta News First reports that "a man was arrested on Sunday." That is the timing anchor in what we compiled.

FOX 5 Atlanta reports the bystander was wounded "outside a Buford business Sunday." What is still not fixed is a calendar date. No calendar date and no clock time for the moment the round was fired appears in what we compiled, and The Local Alert does not calculate one. Working backward from a publication date, or assuming the shooting and the arrest fell on the same day, is exactly the kind of arithmetic that puts a wrong date in a headline.

Two accounts do describe the arrest as fast. FOX 5 Atlanta quotes police saying "officers used Flock cameras to quickly identify the suspect's vehicle," and both accounts describe that vehicle being tracked to an apartment complex on Buford Drive. FOX 5 Atlanta puts a rough interval on it, reporting that detectives "took him into custody within hours" and that police arrested Watkins "hours after the shooting." That is an approximation given by the reporting, not a measured time, and this page does not sharpen it further.

Who was involved, and who we do not name

One person is named here, and one is not.

Jalyn Watkins, 22, is named by both Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta as the man arrested in connection with the shooting. Nothing else about him is established on this page — no city of residence, no employment, no prior record, no attorney, no relationship to anyone else in the story. His age and his name are the whole of it.

The injured man is identified only as a 25-year-old struck in the back, per Atlanta News First. No name for him appears in what we compiled. The Local Alert does not guess at a name and does not go looking for one on social media.

We also do not thicken the description. No race, no build, no clothing, no employer, no reason for him to be at the mall. Three added details can identify a person as effectively as a name while meeting none of the standards a name requires.

Whether Watkins and the injured man knew each other is not established here. The only relationship statement in the record runs the other way: FOX 5 Atlanta reports police said "the victim had no involvement in the incident."

One round into the ground, and the word "shrapnel"

The count on the record is one. Atlanta News First reports the man "fired one round into the ground." FOX 5 Atlanta reports "he fired one round into the ground, causing shrapnel to strike a 25-year-old man." Neither account we compiled describes a second shot, a volley or an exchange.

The direction on the record is down. That detail is doing real work in this story, because it is what separates a round aimed at a person from a round that injured one anyway.

"Shrapnel" is the word police used, and it is the word we keep. Atlanta News First writes that shrapnel "kicked up" and hit the man in the back. What that material was — fragments of the round, of the surface it struck, or both — is not specified in what we compiled, and this page does not fill it in. The distance between where the round landed and where the man was standing is likewise not on the record here.

Attention: a reader who pictures the rest of that scene is supplying it. This page names no caliber, no make of firearm, no number of people outside and no security footage.

The bystander, and the limits of "non-life-threatening"

One person was hurt: a 25-year-old man, struck in the back. That wound description comes from Atlanta News First, reporting what police said.

FOX 5 Atlanta reports the injuries were non-life-threatening. That is the only severity language on the record here, and it deserves to be read narrowly. "Non-life-threatening" is a triage category, not a prognosis. It rules out one thing — an immediate threat to life at the time it was said. It does not tell you whether a person walked away, spent a night in a hospital, needed surgery or is still recovering.

Whether he required hospitalization or any further treatment is not established on this page. No hospital is named in what we compiled, and no follow-up condition report appears here.

So this page attaches no adjective of its own. Not minor. Not lucky. Not superficial. A person standing outside a restaurant was hit in the back by material thrown up by a gunshot, police say — serious regardless of which triage word ended up in the write-up.

Flock cameras and an apartment complex on Buford Drive

Both accounts we compiled describe the same investigative step. FOX 5 Atlanta quotes police: "Officers used Flock cameras to quickly identify the suspect's vehicle," and reports the vehicle was tracked to an apartment complex on Buford Drive. Atlanta News First likewise ties Flock cameras to "an apartment complex on Buford Drive."

What that technology is, in plain terms: Flock is a brand of automated license-plate reader. Fixed cameras photograph passing vehicles, read the plate, and log it with a time and a camera location. It is a record of vehicles, not of people, and a hit places a plate at a camera — not a particular person behind a particular wheel.

The apartment complex is not named on this page, and neither is any address on Buford Drive. What we compiled gives the road and the type of property, and that is where this page stops. Naming a specific complex would attach a shooting to hundreds of uninvolved households.

Nothing here describes what happened at that complex. The record compiled here jumps from a tracked vehicle to an arrest.

The arrest and the Gwinnett County Jail

Atlanta News First reports that the man "was arrested on Sunday" and that "he was arrested and taken to Gwinnett County Jail." FOX 5 Atlanta reports the same booking: "Watkins was taken to the Gwinnett County Jail." Both newsrooms carry it.

FOX 5 Atlanta also reports the gun was recovered. Detectives "recovered the firearm believed to have been used in the shooting," per FOX 5 Atlanta. No caliber, make or ownership appears in what we compiled.

Two things follow from it that are worth stating plainly. First, an arrest is a beginning, not an outcome. It means an agency believed it had probable cause to take a person into custody. It is not a determination that an offense occurred and not a determination that this person committed one.

Second, the jail and the investigating agency are different offices. In Georgia, a county jail is generally operated by the sheriff's office, while the account of this incident is credited to Gwinnett County police. A person can be held in a facility run by one agency on charges filed by another. That distinction decides which office holds which record, and it is the single most common mix-up in reader questions about Gwinnett County.

What is not established here: whether bond has been set or denied, whether a first appearance has been held, whether Watkins has counsel, whether he remains in custody, and whether any prosecutor has reviewed the file. None of that appears in what we compiled, and this page does not estimate any of it.

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The four counts, exactly as reported

Atlanta News First reports that "Jalyn Watkins, 22, faces one count of aggravated assault and three firearm charges." FOX 5 Atlanta reports the same case and itemizes the counts.

One caution about that table. The left column is what two newsrooms published. The middle column is the Georgia statute those offense names correspond to, described generally. No charging document has been read for this page, and no code section number appears in what we compiled — so the statute column is context, not a transcription of a warrant.

The mix of counts is itself informative. Two felony counts and two misdemeanor discharge counts is a charging pattern built around a gun being fired in a public place. No homicide count appears here.

What a charge is, and what a charge is not

A charge is an accusation. It is an assertion by a government agency that an offense occurred and that a particular person committed it — filed early, on what officers believed at the scene and shortly after.

A charge is not a verdict. It is not a finding of fact, not evidence of anything, and not a measurement of how strong a case is. Jalyn Watkins is presumed innocent unless and until the State proves the case in a court of law. The burden sits with the State and never shifts to him.

Charging decisions also change. The counts an arresting agency files and the counts a prosecutor ultimately presents are two decisions made by two different offices, on different information, at different times. Counts get added, reduced, consolidated and dropped. Nothing in what we compiled describes any prosecutor's review, and no prosecutor is named on this page.

This page is not a court docket. It is also not a record that revisits itself — The Local Alert does not update this page automatically as the case moves. For the standing of a criminal case, the court clerk in the county where it is filed is the office that actually knows.

Georgia law on firing a gun in public

Two of the four counts reported here are about the act of discharging a firearm rather than about who got hurt. Those statutes come up constantly in reader questions, so here they are in plain text.

• O.C.G.A. § 16-11-103 — discharging a firearm on or near a public highway or street. In general terms it reaches a person who, without authorization, fires a gun within 50 yards of a public highway or street. It is a misdemeanor. FOX 5 Atlanta reports a count phrased as unauthorized discharge within 50 yards of a public highway.
• O.C.G.A. § 16-11-104 — discharging a firearm on the property of another. In general terms it covers firing a gun on someone else's land without that person's permission. Also a misdemeanor. FOX 5 Atlanta reports a count phrased as discharge of firearm on another's property.
• O.C.G.A. § 16-11-106 — possession of a firearm during the commission of certain crimes. This is an add-on count: it attaches to specified underlying offenses rather than standing alone.
• O.C.G.A. § 16-5-60 — reckless conduct. Not a count reported in this case. It is listed because readers searching Georgia gun-discharge law land on it, and because it is the count filed in a different kind of firearm incident: one where nobody is alleged to have committed an assault.

Notice what these statutes turn on. The two discharge counts do not require that anyone be hit. They are about firing a gun in a place the legislature decided a gun should not be fired — near a road, on land that belongs to someone else. An injury is not an element of either one.

These are general descriptions of statutes, not legal advice, and nothing here is an opinion about whether any of them applies to any person.

Aggravated assault and the possession count

The heaviest count reported here is aggravated assault, and it is worth explaining because "assault" in Georgia does not mean what most people assume.

Simple assault, at O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20, does not require that a blow land. In general terms it covers attempting a violent injury to another person, or committing an act that places another in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury. Aggravated assault, at O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21, is that offense committed with an aggravating element — among them, with a deadly weapon or with an object likely to result in serious bodily injury. It is a felony.

That structure is why an aggravated assault count can follow a round fired into the ground. The offense is not defined by where a bullet ended up. This page draws no conclusion from that; a charge reflects what one agency alleged, and the elements are for a court.

The possession count works differently again. O.C.G.A. § 16-11-106 is not a standalone crime of owning or carrying a gun. It is a count that attaches when a firearm is possessed during the commission of specified underlying offenses, and it is charged in addition to that underlying count rather than instead of it. Which underlying count it was attached to here is not stated in what we compiled.

A named mall, a named restaurant, and what we won't say

Mall of Georgia and the Tavern are named on this page for one reason: that is where police say this happened. That is the entire extent of what the record establishes about either business.

So this page says nothing about mall security, guard staffing, camera coverage, parking-lot lighting, alcohol service, training, or any question of legal responsibility. No statement from Mall of Georgia or from the Tavern appears in what we compiled, and a business does not get characterized here by inference from its name turning up in a police account.

Attention: the location of an incident is not a finding about the people who own or operate that location. Whether any civil claim, review or licensing question follows is not established here.

The same restraint applies to the removal itself. Both accounts report that the man had been put out of the business, and Atlanta News First reports he "appeared to be intoxicated." Why he was removed, beyond that description, is not detailed in what we compiled — not what he was doing, not who made the decision, not how it was carried out. Those are exactly the details a reader wants and the record does not contain.

Who investigates a shooting in Buford

Gwinnett County readers mix these agencies up constantly, and the distinction decides which office holds the file you want.

County police, city police and a sheriff's office are not interchangeable words. Where an account says "Gwinnett County police," this page says Gwinnett County police — and nowhere on this page does a sheriff's office or a city department become the investigating agency by convenience.

How to get the incident report

The agency that holds a report is the agency that wrote it. Both accounts compiled here credit Gwinnett County police for this account, so a Gwinnett County Police Department record is the one to ask for — not a sheriff's record, not a GBI record, not a court file.

Requests are made under Georgia's Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-70 and following. An agency generally must respond within three business days — produce the records, state a cost, or explain a withholding. Responding is not the same as handing over a file.

Expect much of an open case to be withheld. The exemption at O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(4) covers records of pending investigations and prosecutions, with the initial incident report generally treated as disclosable. In practice, while a case is open, the front page of the report is the realistic ask; the narrative, witness statements, body-camera video and any Flock query records usually are not. Expect redactions — particularly of an uninvolved injured person's identifying information.

We are not publishing a records address, e-mail, portal link or fee schedule for the department, because we have not verified one for this page. Ask the department itself which office takes open records requests, and put the request in writing.

What a bystander injury claim involves in Georgia

One detail in this story has a separate legal system behind it: police say the injured man had no involvement in the incident. What follows is general Georgia information, not advice about this case or about any person in it.

A criminal case and a civil claim are different tracks. A criminal case is brought by the State, decided beyond a reasonable doubt, and aimed at punishment. A civil claim is brought by an injured person, decided by a preponderance of the evidence, and aimed at money. Neither controls the other.

Georgia's general deadline for a personal injury claim is two years from the date of the injury, under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33. Deadlines quietly end more claims than any argument does, and there are exceptions and complications that only a lawyer looking at the actual facts can sort out.

Restitution is a separate mechanism inside the criminal case. Georgia's restitution statutes at O.C.G.A. § 17-14-1 and following allow a court to order a convicted defendant to repay a victim's losses. That requires a conviction and is decided by the court.

Georgia also runs a crime victims compensation program, administered through the state's Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, which can help with certain out-of-pocket costs for victims of qualifying crimes. Eligibility rules, covered categories and filing deadlines apply, and they are set by the program — we are not publishing figures or deadlines we have not verified for this page.

The Local Alert is not a law firm and gives no legal advice. What we can do is name which office holds which record, and stop where the record stops.

Where our sources differ

We publish disagreements rather than picking a winner. Here there is no head-on contradiction between the two accounts — the differences are about wording and about how much each one included. "Not in our compilation" below means the point does not appear in what we compiled from that outlet. That is a statement about our compilation and nothing more, not a claim that the outlet was silent on it.

Read down the rows. The name and age, the removal from the business, the single round into the ground, the 25-year-old struck, the Flock cameras, the Buford Drive complex, the counts and the agency are each carried by both newsrooms — which is as solid as a two-source record gets. The Gwinnett County Jail is reported by both newsrooms; the word "Sunday" for the arrest itself is Atlanta News First’s, while FOX 5 Atlanta places the shooting on Sunday and the arrest within hours of it.

What we don't know yet

None of that is filled in by inference. A blank stays a blank here, and this page does not revisit itself later to close one. If a detail above matters to you, the agency named on this page is the office that would have it.

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Frequently asked questions

What happened outside the Tavern at Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia?
Police say a man who had been removed from the Tavern at Mall of Georgia retrieved a handgun from a vehicle and fired one round into the ground outside. Atlanta News First reports shrapnel kicked up and hit a nearby 25-year-old man in the back. FOX 5 Atlanta reports police said the victim had no involvement in the incident, and that the injuries were non-life-threatening. Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta both report that Jalyn Watkins, 22, was arrested.

Where exactly did the Mall of Georgia shooting happen?
Outside the Tavern at Mall of Georgia, off Georgia Boulevard in Buford, Gwinnett County. That is how FOX 5 Atlanta gives the location, and Atlanta News First places the sequence at the Tavern as well. No street number, no suite and no coordinates appear on this page, and this page carries no map.

When did the Mall of Georgia shooting happen?
FOX 5 Atlanta places the shooting on Sunday, and Atlanta News First reports the arrest happened on Sunday. What we compiled does not fix a calendar date or a clock time, and The Local Alert does not calculate one. FOX 5 Atlanta quotes police saying officers used Flock cameras to quickly identify the suspect's vehicle, but quickly is a characterization rather than a measured interval.

Was anyone killed in the Mall of Georgia shooting?
No death is reported in either account compiled here. One person was hurt: a 25-year-old man struck in the back by shrapnel, per Atlanta News First.

How badly was the bystander hurt?
FOX 5 Atlanta reports the injuries were non-life-threatening. That is the only severity language on the record here, and it is a triage category rather than a prognosis. Whether he was hospitalized, what treatment followed and how he is now are not established on this page.

Who is Jalyn Watkins?
Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta both name Jalyn Watkins, 22, as the man arrested in connection with the shooting. Nothing else about him is established here: no city of residence, no employment, no attorney and no prior record. He is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent.

Has the injured bystander been identified?
No. He is identified only as a 25-year-old man struck in the back, per Atlanta News First. No name appears in what we compiled. The Local Alert does not guess at a name and does not add details that would narrow an uninvolved injured person to a small group of people.

What is Jalyn Watkins charged with?
Atlanta News First reports one count of aggravated assault and three firearm charges. FOX 5 Atlanta itemizes them as aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during commission of certain crimes, discharge of firearm on another's property, and unauthorized discharge within 50 yards of public highway.

What does aggravated assault mean under Georgia law?
Aggravated assault is defined at O.C.G.A. section 16-5-21, which builds on the simple assault statute at section 16-5-20. In general terms it is an assault committed with an aggravating element, such as with a deadly weapon or with an object likely to result in serious bodily injury. It is a felony. That is a general description of a statute, not legal advice, and no charging document has been read for this page.

What does Georgia law say about firing a gun near a public highway?
O.C.G.A. section 16-11-103 covers discharging a firearm on or near a public highway or street. In general terms it reaches a person who, without authorization, fires a gun within 50 yards of a public highway or street. It is a misdemeanor. A separate statute, section 16-11-104, covers discharging a firearm on another person's property without permission.

What is the firearm possession count in this case?
O.C.G.A. section 16-11-106 covers possession of a firearm during the commission of certain crimes. It is an add-on count that attaches to specified underlying offenses rather than standing alone, and it is charged in addition to that underlying count. Which underlying count it was attached to here is not stated in what we compiled.

Has Jalyn Watkins been convicted of anything?
No. A charge is an accusation, not a verdict. He is presumed innocent unless and until the State proves the case in a court of law. No plea, trial, bond decision or judgment appears in what we compiled here, and nothing on this page is a finding of guilt.

Which police agency is investigating the Mall of Georgia shooting?
The Gwinnett County Police Department. Atlanta News First credits Gwinnett County police for the account, and FOX 5 Atlanta gives the Gwinnett County Police Department as its source. A county police department is a separate agency from the county sheriff's office and separate again from a city police department such as Buford's. No other agency appears in what we compiled.

How did police find the suspect?
FOX 5 Atlanta quotes police saying officers used Flock cameras to quickly identify the suspect's vehicle. Atlanta News First and FOX 5 Atlanta both describe the vehicle being tracked to an apartment complex on Buford Drive. Flock is a brand of automated license-plate reader, which logs a plate with a time and a camera location. The complex is not named on this page.

How do I get a copy of the incident report?
From the agency that wrote it. Both accounts compiled here credit Gwinnett County police, so a Gwinnett County Police Department record is the one to ask for. Requests are made under Georgia's Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. section 50-18-70 and following. We are not publishing a records address, portal link or fee schedule we have not verified.

What have Mall of Georgia and the Tavern said about the shooting?
No statement from Mall of Georgia or from the Tavern appears in what we compiled here. Both are named only as the place police describe. The Local Alert is not characterizing either one's security, staffing, policies or any question of legal responsibility.