Concerned residents in the Green Acres neighborhood contacted authorities in the early morning hours of April 20 after they witnessed a gun being shot out of a vehicle with three occupants.

Officers from the Covington Police Department were quick to arrive in the area but while en route they reportedly saw a white Chevrolet Impala that matched the description given to dispatch by witnesses of the shooting. The vehicle was turning left onto Conyers Street. At Monticello Street the officers activated their emergency equipment in an effort to stop the three occupants from going any further.

According to reports, the driver pulled the vehicle over at a gas station on Emory and Clark Streets and as he did so, an officer reportedly noticed a white object get tossed from the driver’s side of the vehicle into the parking lot.

Officers approached the vehicle with weapons drawn – a precaution since witnesses had said someone in the car was armed – and gave the occupants verbal commands to put their hands in the air and exit the vehicle one at a time. As the occupants exited, officers searched each for a weapon. Officers also reportedly noticed a strong smell of marijuana coming from the interior of the car. They located the white object previously thrown from the vehicle and identified it as a crack pipe wrapped in toilet paper, according to reports.

Initially each of the three occupants reportedly refused to lay claim to the pipe. Inside the vehicle officers also allegedly found a small bag of suspected marijuana and a blunt in the front middle of the car. Also reportedly located was a piece of suspected crack cocaine which was allegedly found in the door handle of the passenger front side of the vehicle. A Lorcin .380 caliber handgun was also found on the base of the front right passenger seat, according to reports. The gun was reportedly loaded and the six-round magazine had four bullets inside. One bullet was allegedly found on the ground.

The driver of the vehicle was identified as 24-year-old Kenyake White, the front passenger as 17-year-old Notavious Smith and the rear passenger as 41-year-old Paula Clark. All three were arrested and transported to the Newton County Detention Center. While on the way there, Clark spontaneously told officers, according to reports, that Smith shot the gun one time in the air in Green Acres and that all three had been "smoking weed."

White was charged with marijuana less than one ounce, possession of drug related objects and obstruction; Clark was charged with marijuana less than one ounce, possession of drug related objects, false name to law enforcement and obstruction; and Smith was charged with marijuana less than one once, possession of drug related objects, obstruction, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, discharging a firearm on a public street, possession/manufacturing of a controlled substance and possession of a firearm by a minor.