Augusta man charged with shooting girlfriend while on parole

A Georgia man convicted of wounding a woman in a shooting eight years ago was charged with fatally shooting another woman Saturday.

Davante Parks, 26, turned himself in to the Richmond County Jail on Sunday after authorities said he fatally shot Laquana Lang, 27, at her home in Augusta, according to an arrest warrant cited by CBS affiliate WRDW and ABC affiliate WJBF.

Authorities reportedly said in the warrant that Lang’s children, ages 2 and 5, were left alone in the home for hours with their mother’s body and eventually had to crawl and walk through her blood to get help.

According to WRDW, police identified Parks as the children’s stepfather. Parks and Lang’s Facebook pages indicated they were a couple.

Parks has been charged with murder and two counts of first-degree cruelty to a child, according to jail records. It was not immediately clear whether he has legal representation.

The Richmond County coroner told HuffPost that Lang was shot at least once inside the home and was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:06 a.m. An autopsy has been scheduled.

Court records show that Parks was paroled in July after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and a firearms charge in 2018. According to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, he became eligible for parole after serving a third of his 12-year sentence in 2020. However, he was not released until July, by which time he had served eight years.

In 2016, Parks shot and wounded a 25-year-old woman at an apartment complex, The Augusta Chronicle reported. This week, McKie told WJBF she was shocked to see Parks’ name back in the headlines and didn’t realize he had been paroled.

McKie said her recovery from the shooting has been difficult and she has reached a point where she feels comfortable leaving her house without having to look over her shoulder.

“I haven’t slept since I found out he was out, and then Saturday I had to find out through a Facebook post that he was the one who was out,” she told WJBF. “No one told me he was out.”

The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

A spokesman for the Georgia Parole Board said staff at local district attorneys’ offices typically work with crime victims to register them with the state to be notified of an offender’s parole status. No one has been registered as a victim in connection with Parks’ aggravated assault case in the state system, the spokesman said.

The state is working on a program that could change the registration process to allow state officials to contact crime victims directly and ask if they want to be notified of parole updates, the spokesman said.

Need help? In the United States, call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for assistance. National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Delve into true crime cases and keep up with the latest headlines with HuffPost’s Suspicious Circumstances newsletter. Register here.