Motel Shooting Leaves One Injured and One in Custody

The following press release has been issued by Hiawassee Police Department.  All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Hiawassee, GA – January 27, 2018 – Just before midnight on Friday, January 26, 2018, the Hiawassee Police Department responded to a call from the Hiawassee Budget Inn on South Main Street in reference to a subject attempting to force entry into a room. Upon arrival, officers discovered that a person had been shot. The shooter had fled the scene on foot.

The Towns County Sheriff’s Office and Hiawassee Police Department canvased the area attempting to locate the shooter. The victim, 40-year-old Lee Conard of Young Harris, GA, was transported by air ambulance to Northeast Georgia Medical Center with a bullet wound to the arm.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations was called to investigate the shooting. As the investigation was ending, 18-year-old Christopher Cody Wiggins, the assailant, returned to the scene and surrendered to the officers still present. Wiggins then lead officers approximately three-quarters of a mile to where he had dropped the gun used in the incident.

Wiggins is currently being held at the Towns County Detention Center and has been charged with two counts of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.

Investigators learned that Conard sustained the gunshot wound while hiding in the bathroom with 18-year-old Abagail Petoskey of Young Harris. Wiggins shot through the bathroom door multiple times, striking Conard in the arm. Petoskey was not injured.