Shooting incident at a party leaves a Monroe teen fighting for his life

And a 19-year-old Monroe man in jail facing multiple felony charges

(GWINNETT COUNTY, GA) A shooting incident at a party on Callie Still Road in Gwinnett County last month has left a 17-year-old Monroe teen fighting for his life in the ICU and a 19-year-old Monroe man in jail facing multiple felony charges.

According to the police report from Gwinnett County Police Department, officers responded to a person shot call just after 11 p.m. on May 18, 2022. They arrived at the address on Callie Still Road to find Jacob Connor Capes, 17, of Monroe, lying on the ground with a couple of other teens around him, one applying pressure to gunshot wounds to his stomach. The first arriving officer began administering aid and the other officers began securing the scene and taking statements from witnesses. Eli Thomas Wright, 19, also of Monroe, was named as a suspect.

Capes was transported to a hospital where he was first treated for the trauma before being transferred to the ICU where he has remained ever since. His mother, Rachel Spears, is speaking out on the scourge of gun violence that has left her son fighting for his life.

“It is devastating. I never imagined anything like this,” Spears said.

Contributed photos of Jacob Capes and his mother, Rachel Spears

Spears has started a Gofundme page to help keep them afloat as she and her husband sit vigil at her son’s hospital bedside. He was shot five times and remains on a ventilator.

“He is in very critical condition and he has no idea what is going on. I have not been able to speak to him. He can’t talk – he has a ventilator breathing for him,” Spears said. “He has his 7th surgery in the morning and hopefully, if everything goes well, then they are planning on closing up his stomach. But it’s basically a day-by-day situation and nobody can give a direct answer because nobody really knows from minutes-to-minute. Everything changes so quickly – his vitals, temperature and oxygen levels, everything.”

“My heart is breaking every day looking at my only child laying in a hospital bed with gunshot wounds. Jacob is the most loyal, loving, caring person that I have ever met in my life. He tries to help anybody he possibly can with never any hesitation and don’t expect to receive anything back,” she said on the Gofundme page.

Spears said her son was planning on joining the Marines and was expecting to head out in August after he graduated. She and her husband have been left in a difficult financial position as she sits vigil at her son’s bed in the hospital every day and her husband also has missed a lot of work as a result. The community is asked to keep her son in their prayers and if anybody is able to contribute financially, they can do so through the Gofundme Page at this link.

Wright was subsequently arrested on May 21, 2022. He remains in Gwinnett County Jail, without bond, charged with seven counts of aggravated assault, one count of possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of a crime and one count of possession, transfer or receipt of a firearm. The shooting was not Wright’s first run in with the law. He was arrested in Walton County in April last year on charges of marijuana possession less than 1 oz, terroristic threats and acts, criminal interference with government property and obstruction of an officer.