Third suspect charged in fatal bar shooting involving motorcycle gangs

A third suspect has been jailed in the Oct. 9 shooting death of Dominic Mitchell at the 4th Quarter Sports Bar on Macon Road, Columbus Police announced Thursday in a press release.

Daginald Wheeler, 52, of Columbus joins James Daniel Jr., 36, of Pine Mountain and Demark Ponder, 47, of LaGrange as the third suspect arrested in connection to Mitchell’s death. Like Daniels, he was charged with murder and armed robbery and booked into the Muscogee County Jail.

Ponder pleaded not guilty to those same charges in addition to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of a crime charges Oct. 16 in Recorder’s Court. He was ordered held in the county jail without bond and the case was bound over to Superior Court.

Authorities said they were called Oct. 29 around 11:20 p.m. to the shooting of multiple victims at the 4th Quarter Sports Bar at 6959 Macon Road. Mitchell was taken to Midtown Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of two gunshot wounds just before midnight, officials stated.

Around that same time officers arrived on the scene, Ponder and another wounded person appeared in the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital. Ponder, who traveled to the hospital on a motorcycle, sustained a gunshot wound to the right leg and a third person was shot in the stomach. According to a police report released days later, that victim was a 49-year-old Columbus man.

An investigation revealed that a local motorcycle gang was holding a meeting at the 4th Quarter Sports Bar when approximately 10 to 13 members of another local motorcycle gang showed up and started a physical altercation that led to 63 rounds being fired at the scene. Police said the two motorcycle gangs involved in the shooting were the “Strikers” and “Outcast.”

Officials said Wheeler, Ponder and Daniel are associated with the Outcast Motorcycle Gang.  

Wheeler and Daniel are scheduled to appear in Recorder’s Court 2 p.m. today.

— Sarah is a crime and safety reporter at The Ledger-Enquirer. You can contact her on Twitter at @SarahR_92.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 3:16 AM with the headline "Third suspect charged in fatal bar shooting involving motorcycle gangs."