A 14-year-old boy charged in a recent retaliation shooting had a previous aggravated assault charge dismissed earlier this year, according to Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams.
Tian’Trez Freeman was found with a weapon on June 1 after gunfire erupted in the Crawford Avenue area of Augusta’s Harrisburg neighborhood. He was charged with aggravated assault, but the case was dismissed on August 26.
Williams said the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office failed to provide a complete case file in a timely manner, which led to the dismissal.
“The case was dismissed on 8/26/2025. We have been requesting a case file for months, and we were assured on 8/21/2025 that we would have a case file by that next week,” Williams wrote in a statement. “It is 9/24/2025, and as of today we still do not have a completed case file. We rescheduled Grand Jury multiple times to give an opportunity to receive the file. We cannot continue to hold anyone, let alone a 14-year-old, in jail without evidence to prove they committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
A Richmond County Sheriff’s spokesman acknowledged that their investigators failed to turn over the case file on time, but added that they were not notified the case would be dismissed.
Sheriff Eugene Brantley addressed their failure in a Wednesday press conference: “The teenager was taken into custody. There were reports or emails that were sent from the DA requesting us to complete the file on the case report, and we didn’t do so in a timeframe that was conducive to them keeping the juvenile into custody, and so they released him from custody. … We have to own up and be responsible for our part and make sure we are doing what we have to do.”
Freeman and 15-year-old Rydeek Bailey are now accused of opening fire on a home on Druid Park Avenue on Tuesday night. Two adults and seven children were inside at the time. No injuries were reported, but bullets entered the front of the home and passed through several interior walls.
Investigators believe the shooting was in retaliation for Tuesday’s deadly incident at Augusta Mall, where 17-year-old Devon McClain was fatally shot.
Deputies recovered 22 shell casings and one live round from across the street on Druid Park Avenue, leading investigators to believe more than one shooter was involved.
In the June shooting in Harrisburg, two juveniles were injured, including Zihron Wright, who suffered a gunshot wound to the left thigh. Another juvenile with a leg laceration was also hospitalized.
Both Freeman and McClain, the victim in the mall shooting, had been charged in the June Harrisburg case. Charges against McClain were still pending at the time of his death, but he had been released on bond.
