I first reported on the assault with a deadly weapon/attempted murder with shots fired from a laser beam sighted gun from a lakeside home on Tobesofkee on March 23. I never seriously entertained the idea that Dr. Jalal Ghali had fired shots in order to terrorize three fishermen. Even though Dr. Ghali owned the home at 124 Lotus Point Drive he simply didn’t strike me as someone that would fire off multiple rounds at fishermen. Medical doctors in their 60’s simply do not fit the profile of someone likely to lose their temper to that degree. That dog just wouldn’t hunt.
Although it was possible it wasn’t probable. So I began to do a little digging and found out some intriguing information on other possible suspects based on legal residents listed on public records. My search for the Tobesofkee Terrorist came up with some interesting possibilities.
Luckily in my update article when I spoke with one of the fisherman named Shelby Smith I got a few new clues. It is also important to remember that this was not the first time shots have been fired from this house or lasers dots been pointed at people. Neighbors reported that earlier in the week shots had been fired from the house as well.
I have been compiling a list of possible suspects because neither Sheriff Davis nor District Attorney David Cooke have made any real progress or made an arrest thus far. There are several other ways to identify the shooter. For example they could isolate them into separate rooms and interview them and look for any inconsistencies. Even the most rehearsed stories will have some cracks. To the best of my knowledge this has yet to be done. They flubbed the investigation the night of the incident but even many weeks later have not interviewed anyone according to the best information I have to date.
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Who are some possible suspects?
Below you can see Dr. Ghali’s home. There are several vehicles in the driveway and possibly more in the garage. This would suggest that multiple people live or frequent the home. According to public legal records I also confirmed the following individuals list 124 Lotus Point Drive as their legal residence: Dr. Jalal Ghali, Jinan Ghali , Nermin Ghali, Lena Ghali, Layla Ghali, Wael Ghali, Kamal Ghali, Basil Ghali and Osama Ghali. There is also another family member named Kinnan Ghali living in Macon as well that appears to be Dr. Ghali’s son. Many of these same Ghali family members including Kinnan Ghali also listed a house on Wolf Creek Dr. N. as a previous residence.
Potential Suspect #1 Dr. Jalal Ghali
In my opinion this is the least likely person to have fired the shots. Doctors by their very nature have to maintain a certain temperament that is diametrically opposed to losing your temper and firing at other humans from your home.
Is it possible he fired the shots? Nothing is out of the realm of possibility. A Mercer University Medical School doctor who has spent a lifetime building his career and reputation is probably not going to throw all of that away to intimidate some fisherman that ventured too close to his property.
Just going off of stereotypical profiles of similar cases from FBI reports I discovered the most likely suspect would be a male in his 40’s or younger. They tend to be more impetuous and hot-tempered. The shooter would also likely have had a history of some other violent incidents and an attraction to contact sports or thrill seeking. This was also an escalation which means there were likely prior incidences of aggression in the past.
Potential Suspect #2 Kinnan Ghali
Kinan is a first year student at Mercer law school. Sources that wish to remain anonymous described Kinnan as “overtly aggressive and a bully”. He is known to “fly off the handle at other students.” In one example Kinnan peered in a class and saw some students sitting and chatting. He asked if there was a class going on and a student said no they were just sitting at chatting. At that point Kinnan said “shut your fucking mouth and let loose a barrage of insults seemingly without any provocation or any good reason.
In another incident he had an argument with another male student that he has regularly targeted in the past. The student entered a bathroom stall and Kinnan frantically paced back and forth outside the stall and peered inside the cracks of the stall. Eventually other students entered and the guy in the stall was able to exit without being attacked. While Kinnan was outside pacing and peering in the stall he was afraid to leave till others entered.
In another incident at Mercer law school I was told by the same source that Kinnan bumped into another male student in a classroom. The other student had only recently had knee surgery. Kinnan blamed the other guy and became angry that he had bumped into him. At that point Kinnan reportedly pushed the other man down and cussed him out and said it was all his fault. A few witnesses confirmed that it was in fact Kinnan that had ran into the other student. This incident was reported to Mercer administration but no one was punished and they seemed to take the side of Kinnan.
I also have information from multiple sources at Mercer Law school that have heard Kinnan attended John Marshall law school in Atlanta prior to attending Mercer and left after an incident with a professor. Sources on campus cited a possible reason for his departure from John Marshall stems from an incident involving a finger gesture. Campus sources report that Kinnan made a hand gesture of a gun. I called John Marshall but they had no comment so I cannot confirm whether the sources and information from Mercer law students are true or not at this time.
All of those incidents above are second hand reports. But what is not secondhand information is a police report filed over a fight at an amateur boxing gym in downtown Macon in June of 2013. Why Kinnan was practicing boxing at a gym that was intended to serve underprivileged black youth is unclear. Another gym patron asked Kinnan to put his shirt back on because that was the rules of the gym. According to the incident report the other man stated that Kinnan pushed his face and he slapped his hand down and then Kinnan punched him. The other man flipped him on the ground and the fight ended soon after by mutual consent. In Kinnan’s version he claims the other man threw the first punch. The officer was unable to determine who started the fight so they were both charged with disorderly conduct.
Potential Suspect #3 Basil Ghali
On the WMAZ website from a few weeks back I examined the comments for possible leads. One comment stood out in particular.
I did a bit more digging and found out that he was referring to Basil Ghali. Basil had a shaved head with a HUGE scar that ran from ear to ear at the time. He looked at Basil’s picture on Mugshot.com and positively identified him as the same guy that was arrested and said the long hair is covering the scar.
We have now obtained a copy of the police report. Basil Ghali was arrested for making terroristic threats at the time for threatening to kill everyone in the establishment with his weapon.
On Friday December 07, 2012 a police officer was dispatched over a call involving a fight. This was a Mixed martial Arts training facility located in Macon, GA. . The officer met with three MMA instructors. All four witnesses told the police officer that “Z” referencing Basil had been drinking and appeared to be “high”.
He began to make threats in Arabic. All four witnesses stated that Basil then said he was going to his car to retrieve a gun and was going to come back inside to kill everybody. They didn’t know what to expect and feared the worse when he returned 15 minutes later.
The officer spoke with Ghali and he advised that he had been drinking and was currently not taking his prescribed medication for his clinically diagnosed bipolar disorder. Basil Ghali was arrested on the charge of terroristic threats and banned from the facility. Although not in the police report, other sources told me that Basil claimed to be a Syrian rebel that had fought against Americans. The main Syrian rebel groups targeting American troops are members of Al-Qaeda, ISIL or ISIS. He also claimed various affiliations to numerous other local gangs.
Wael Ghali Deceased But Clues From Blog
I have learned that Wael Ghali may have passed away though I could not find any mention of an obituary. Unlike his brothers or possibly cousins above, he had no arrest record and no other reports of violent or erratic behavior. In fact, there is not much of anything about Wael on the internet at all besides these cryptic blogs.
I am not sure if all the male family members are brothers or cousins, but will update this article once I get clarification of their consanguineous ties. I also want to make clear I have no idea who fired the shots, I am simply trying to help gather facts.
Not the first Time Fishermen have been terrorized on Lake Tobesofkee
As I mentioned earlier in this article this was not the first incident involving a gun at this home. In addition to neighbors reporting shots being fired a few days before the three fishermen were nearly killed, around a year ago a source has told me that he also experienced a terrifying ordeal involving a laser dot sight pointed at him in this same cove emanating from Dr. Ghali’s home.
Around a year ago this other fisherman in a boat had a laser sight pointed on him while he was talking on the phone. He heard someone from 124 Lotus Point Dr. mimicking what he was saying on the phone call. The person from the home was parroting and mocking what the man was saying while on the phone by repeating the words in a funny voice. This fisherman then clearly heard the sound a a gun being cocked. That sound in addition to the laser and the mocking made him leave post haste because he feared he might get shot if he stayed any longer. No shots were fired at this encounter, but that level of aggression suggests that the more recent incident at Tobesofkee was an escalation. The only escalation remaining is for the next shots fired from 124 Lotus Point Dr. to result in someone being shot and possibly killed.
It is way past time for Sheriff Davis and District Attorney David Cooke to use the full power of the law to aggressively investigate this assault with a deadly weapon/attempted murder and make an arrest. Many people in Bibb county rightly or wrongly believe that the rich are being treated very differently than others in the community. The only way to prove that the law in Bibb county is equitable to all regardless of financial clout or political status is to make an arrest.
There to scared to arrest anyone.
Thanks for this report, please don’t let this incident go cold. Someone in this family is very dangerous and it won’t be long before someone gets killed.
When the law doesn’t do anything the people eventually will. There gonna end up with more shit if they dont take care of this now. Bibb co. Sherriffs office isnt gonna like it when 5 or 6 KKK members or some group of white boys run up in this house and take controll. This probability is very real. Lots of people are sick of this kinda shit.
I cannot believe that there were shots fired at another person(s) and the BCSO did not obtain entry to the home by whatever means necessary the night of the incident to question everyone in the residence, retrieve the weapon and have it fingerprinted along with the hand rail and door(s) leading out to the balcony. This case should already be on it’s way to trial.
On another note, the first time one claims to have been a “Syrian” (or any other enemy of the USA) rebel and claims to have fought against US forces, they should be arrested, charged with treason and air dropped in the country of their “rebel” association. SMH.
This case is interesting on a number of levels, but let me focus first on the potential charging issue as a matter of law. If we presume the shooter was using a laser sight, the shooter presumably was issuing warning shots, as a body shot would have been easy to execute if desired by the shooter. So one defense might be that the shooter did not intend to cause bodily harm. Nonetheless, that might still not protect the shooter from a conviction for aggravated assault (a serious felony), at least if one considers the well-publicized case of Marissa Alexander from Florida. Despite issuing warning shots in an allegedly defensive attempt to thwart a physical assault from her allegedly abusive husband, Alexander was heavily sentenced on an aggravated assault charge after just 12 minutes of jury deliberation. In this Macon-Bibb case, by contrast, there was no apparent affront by the anglers calmly drifting on public waters while fishing, so you’d think that an aggravated assault charge would stick if it were prosecuted.
Now, just who should be prosecuted is a good question, and I have heard some fair pushback in particular on whether Kinnan Ghali should even be mentioned as a plausible suspect for a couple of reasons. But under the general legal doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, somebody in that house should be held accountable, and I agree with Alan Wood that it falls on the sheriff and district attorney to sort it out and make a proper case. Prosecution may be more important than it might first appear in a case like this without bodily harm. Among African Americans I’ve spoken with in Macon, there are some serious questions not only about whether the apparently-lackadaisical prosecutorial approach here not only speaks to class issues, but to the racial identity of the victims. These anglers have been careful not to play a race card themselves, and as to the shooter’s unknown motivations, that makes good sense. But as to the vigor of law enforcement and prosecution, it is a statistically tested proposition (see the Baldus study in the McCleskey case) that the victim’s race may well have a bearing on what happens thereafter in the legal process. In short, when the victim is black, the prosecution often is ultimately less meaningful than when the victim is of another hue. The jury is still out in this case about how we should evaluate the prosecutorial vigor shown here. A prosecution could still be mounted. It will be interesting to see what transpires.
Just out of curiosity, why do you say that Kinnan is not a plausible suspect?
One suggestion that I heard, from someone not in the Ghali family but apparently a friend of Kinnan’s, was that Kinnan Ghali might not have been there at that time that evening. If true, that would narrow prosecutorial focus. On the other hand, that assertion may not be true. I personally don’t know. Anyone claiming to know who was there in the home at that time would be quite interesting to speak with, if I were questioning in an official capacity.
It’s a safe bet that Dr. Ghali fired the shots or knows who did. He could be locked up on suspicion of aggravated assault. If he were thrown in jail, we would get to the bottom of this in a hurry.
Someone needs to be held accountable……real soon!
You ever heard the old saying, “It ain’t over til it’s over”. Could be more going on than the public knows. What if the Feds are looking at these guys as terrorists and asked the locals to ease off for awhile? Just a question.
It’s chilling to think how often we have all read or heard details such as you have outlined above on the two most likely culprits as the back story to a horrible tragedy of mass violence that happens all too often in the world we live in today. Aggressive, often violent behavior, threats of committing acts of large scale violence, a history of mental illness, family members in denial who are well aware of behavioral issues, but are willing to cover up or use connections to make things go away. Then the unthinkable happens, when it most likely could have been avoided. Also, the reluctance of the deputies responding that night to press the issue, i.e. seek a warrant for searching the premises when they were denied access or even the courtesy of having questions answered, etc. suggests to me that a culture exists among local LE that those actions would not have been well received by higher ups in their chain of command due to Dr. Ghali’s connections with community leadership; especially in light of the fact that a related event had occurred last year at the same residence. Failure on the part of our LE officials just emboldens the perpetrator to escalate his actions when he feels no fear of consequences. Kudos to you, Alan, for keeping this on the front burner.
Even if they were firing warning shots. The shots were fire into a state recreation park. so some one should be arrested for that alone. So now they are basically saying anyone can go into that cove and fish and if they feel threatened from sh loo t fired they can retaliate with shots back at them which eventually it will happen cause every body knows the address now and what to expect
1st off my thoughts are that you are a terrific reporter that takes his job serious, and concerns for others. Great job!!! Now it sounds like to me who the guilty one is needs to be taken to BCSO for some questions. I will be willing to bet anything that if something of that nature happend at my home the Bibb county sheriff’s office would not let me slam the door in their face and tell them to come back another day.I’m sure Swat and ATF. would be out there. What the hell is happening to our City, our County and even more important to our Country .
My thoughts exactly.
Better not be scared to investigate this incident. There’ll be worse coming if you don’t.
Wael actually passed away awhile back. Please remove him from here. We ought to at least respect the deceased.
Thank you for that information. I have updated my article to reflect that. I certainly do not want to speak ill of the dead and also don’t wish to cause any more pain to the Ghali family. The only reason I left some information about Wael in the articles are some blog posts that may be significant that mention a “B” which could mean Basil.
Kinnan Ghali, a year ago he had threatened everyone at the shooting range off of thomaston rd, they had refuse to sell him a gun , he threaten to kill everyone inside and the sheriffs were called , got there after he left, wrote a report, but nothing ever followed up after that incident either, nothing heard back from the department, terrorist threats and nothing again. i guess money does talk .