MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office is searching for three men in connection with the shooting of Ja’various X’zavier Thomas.

The shooting occurred Sunday, Aug. 9, around 11 p.m. as Thomas, LaShawn Lee, 19, Nigel Hillie, 21, and Rakeem Hightower, 24, were driving toward a Valdosta Club. The trio were people Thomas didn’t know, according to CCSO Investigator Ronald Jordan.

When the group arrived at Cannon Road, the driver of the vehicle stopped it on the roadside and told Thomas to get out.

The driver then shot Thomas’ left leg with a pistol. He ran into nearby woods, leaving his phone behind. With no way to call for help, he remained in the woods until his screams got the attention of a passerby about 1 a.m.

“He wound up there stuck in the middle of nowhere, so to speak, with a broken left leg for approximately two hours before somebody who drove by heard him screaming,” Jordan said.

Thomas was taken to Colquitt Regional Medical Center initially and later taken by helicopter to Navicent Health Medical Center in Macon due to complications with his wound.

Navicent said on Aug. 11 that Thomas had requested confidentiality on his status.

Jordan, however, said Thomas’s uncle told him on Aug. 10 that Thomas had made it through surgery and was stable.

“[Thomas] stated that he did not know the reasoning behind it,” Jordan said. “But what he says isn’t always what the truth is.”

CCSO asks anyone with information on the whereabouts of Lee, Hillie and Hightower to call 911 or 229-616-7430.