Sheriff Roundtree Sending Message to Community with Multiple Murder Charges for Chaps Lane Stabbing

Posted: Mar 23, 2016 / 07:03 PM EDT

Updated: Mar 23, 2016 / 07:03 PM EDT

AUGUSTA (WJBF-TV) — Ten people are facing murder and aggravated assault charges after a deadly brawl on Chaps Lane in south Augusta.

News Channel 6 has obtained video of the fight that lead to the murder of 18-year-old Demajhay Bell.

Sheriff Richard Roundtree is very upset about this case.

In fact, the reason so many people have been charged with murder is because Roundtree wants to send a message to the people of Augusta that something like this can’t happen.

The video of the brawl shows dozens of people involved.

The more than 2 minute-long clip shows those involved using not only their fists, but pipes and baseball bats, as well.

Ariel Cope lives in the neighborhood where it happened.

“It’s turning into an epidemic right now. It’s really scary because I have a child and this is like a family community and now you just have to worry about stuff like that,” Cope said.

She says her subdivision has been a great place for her to live with her 4-year-old daughter the last few years.

“I really couldn’t believe it. I went, no way, not in our neighborhood because it’s so quiet. We don’t ever have any problems over here, so that really shocked me,” Cope said.

The video in question also shows someone using a car to try to run people over — even driving through someone’s yard and smashing into someone else’s vehicle in the process.

Shacoya Bell also lives in the neighborhood.

“Making sure niece is safe, my mom is safe when she comes home from work, making sure I’m safe when I’m home from work. It’s just sad,” Bell said.

She says she went to school with some of the people involved in the fight.

Now, a lot of them have been charged with Demajhay Bell’s murder.

“I don’t know. That’s the crazy part about it. All of them. And most of them are still in school getting ready to graduate this year,” Bell said.

We asked Sheriff Richard Roundtree why so many people have been charged with murder, even though it was one person who stabbed 18-year-old Demajhay Bell.

“In the laws of Georgia, under felony murder charge, it says any person who participates in a felony that results in the loss of life of any person, regardless if they did the criminal act itself of the murder, can be charged with that murder,” the sheriff said.

Roundtree says investigators are still speaking with witnesses and looking at video to see if anyone else was involved in this fight.

If they do find anyone else, more charges will be coming.

Meanwhile, deputies are still looking for two suspects in this case: