MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office is currently looking for a Doerun man after a shooting that occurred early Sunday morning. 

Anthony Bernard Harper, 38, is wanted by the CCSO in connection with the shooting on East Free Avenue in Doerun, according to CCSO criminal investigator Austin Cannon. 

“A child who was present in the home heard a loud bang that woke her up around 3 a.m.,” Cannon said in an interview Monday. “The child then went to investigate the noise and found Harper strangling her mother.”

The child was able to get Harper off her mother and then he began to gather his belongings and leave. Not soon after, he forcibly reentered the home and began to assault the mother again, Cannon said.

“He first started to punch the victim with a closed fist,” Cannon said. “He then tried to attack the child with a piece of glass that was part of the living room coffee table but the mother stepped in front of him and was struck in the side of the head. He then left the residence before Doerun police arrived.”

The mother had called another family member before police arrived, and that person told the Doerun officer that Harper had attempted to shoot the victim. A brass shell casing was found inside the bedroom as well as a bullet hole in the headboard, according to an incident report by DPD.

The woman was taken by EMS to a hospital outside Colquitt County after the child was given to a family member, according to the report. She has yet to be released, according to Cannon.

Harper is wanted on two counts of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, cruelty to children in the third degree and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. 

He is described by Cannon as a 6-foot-4-inch black male weighing approximately 215-225 pounds with tattoos on his arms. He is last known to be driving a dark grey Chevrolet Impala. No other information is available at this time. 

If you have any information on Harper’s whereabouts, you can contact the CCSO at 229-616-7430.