Why were so many cops converged on West Thomas Thursday afternoon?

Neighbors and passers-by may have wondered the reason for the large police presence on the west end of Milledgeville on Thursday afternoon.

Multiple city cops responded, and a block of West Thomas Street was blocked off on the other side of the Wray Homes/West End projects.

It turns out that the Milledgeville Police Department was responding to a drive-by shooting in front of a house in the 1020 block of West Thomas. Ultimately arrested on multiple charges was Octavious Sircarya Hurt, who apparently was still feeling emotional and sensitive after being in a fight earlier in the day at the same location.

Hurt, who was picked up in Putnam County, was charged with four counts of aggravated assault, one for everyone who was on the front porch during the drive-by, as well as possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Hurt reportedly "came back to the location...after leaving the fight, got out of his vehicle and fired one single shot with a handgun...towards everyone on the front porch."

In terms of his jail history, Hurt was arrested on six different occasions between 2000 and 2003 before being shipped off to the Coffee Corrections Facility in South Georgia, where he stayed until 2009. The listed charges for Hurt's incarceration were aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to his Georgia Department of Corrections history.

Since his release from prison, however, Hurt had been on a pretty good roll, and he'd only been booked at the county jail once in the last 13 years prior to his arrest two days ago.