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Photo obtained by WMAZ/Channel 13
Who is Fiesta Murphy?
That's the question many people around here were asking following a deputy-involved shooting at a rural church past the county jail on Dec. 13.
After the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office previously went a full 25 years with zero deputy-involved shootings, last month's incident marked the second deputy-involved shooting of 2022.
The initial information was that Murphy was 47, had a Pennsylvania address, recently was released from jail and was homeless. Now, more is known about Murphy and her past, thanks to Jessica Cha with WMAZ/Channel 13 in Macon. Cha recently interviewed two members of Murphy's family back in Pennsylvania, and the entire news piece can be watched by clicking below...
Robert Bell, who identified himself as Murphy's cousin, said that Murphy previously was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.
Another family member said that Murphy previously lived a relatively normal life prior to her diagnosis in Pennsylvania . Neither family member indicated how Murphy ended up in Georgia.
Murphy was shot once in the upper leg, and she was also grazed once in the head by a bullet during the deputy-involved shooting. After being released from the hospital, Murphy was booked at the Bibb County jail, where she remains. Sheriff Bill Massee said at the time that the county jail in Macon "had bigger mental health" facilities.
Now, Murphy's cousin "would like to have bond set at a reasonable rate so we can have (Murphy) back home and in treatment."
The incident occurred prior to sundown on Dec. 13, as two deputies – Ernesto Lopez and Greg See – responded to Antioch Primitive Baptist Church on Old Monticello Road, located on the same road as the county jail and several miles away. The deputies were responding to a burglary call. Deputies later concluded that Murphy had been squatting inside the church for a period of time and caused relatively significant damage inside of the church and also started a fire in a small room.
Baldwin2k News later compiled a breakdown of the body cam footage of the incident, which can be viewed below..
The body cam footage, shown from the perspective of Deputy See, shows he and Lopez enter Antioch Primitive Baptist Church after receiving a call from its pastor. The area around the pews and altar is relatively dark, and the two deputies use their flash lights to get a better perspective of the building. As Lopez prepares to enter the back fellowship hall, which is completely dark from the body cam perspective, yelling suddenly is heard followed by a succession of gunshots.
In the body cam footage, Lopez walks out of the church following the shooting and calls in the incident over the radio before re-entering with a first aid kit, while See begins assessing the wounds. The two deputies then begin administering first aid 70 seconds after the final shot was fired.
