Number of suspects facing charges grows in Savannah square shootout that injured 11

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A growing number of suspects are facing gunfight charges 11 people injured last month in a public square in the heart of historic downtown Savannah.

Savannah police are looking for two men on arrest warrants charging them with aggravated assault and other crimes stemming from the May 18 violence at Ellis Square, police spokesman Neil Penttila said Monday.

That’s after police arrested 30-year-old Jacorey Daronte Porter on Friday and charged him with four counts of aggravated assault and illegal gun possession. Penttila said Porter is the fifth suspect arrested in connection with the downtown shootings — a count that does not include the two additional men wanted.

Savannah Police Chief Lenny Gunther said a late-night argument between two women led to several gunmen opening fire just before midnight in Ellis Square, located amid restaurants and bars in an entertainment area popular with tourists.

No one was killed, although police said 10 people were struck by gunfire and another was injured by glass from a shattered car window. Police said all victims were treated at a hospital and released.

Mary Susan Robichaux, who is listed in Chatham County court records as an attorney for Porter in an unrelated, pending felony case, did not immediately return an email message from The Associated Press on Monday. No one answered the phone at an office number listed for her.

The violence at Ellis Square was the worst mass shooting in Georgia’s oldest city since June 2021, when someone was in a passing car. shot into a crowd of people outside an apartment complex in Savannah. One person was killed and seven were injured.