MINISTER'S DEATH LEAVES GRIEF, QUESTIONS

Lavonia — He wanted to be serving the Lord on the day he died. And
friends and family said this weekend they believe that’s what The Rev.
Jonathan Ayers was doing Tuesday when he was killed.

Days after the 28-year-old pastor of Lavonia’s Shoal Creek Baptist
Church was shot and killed by undercover narcotics agents in nearby
Toccoa, people in these two northeast Georgia towns are trying to make
sense of what happened.

Ayers left a wife, Abby, who is 16 weeks pregnant with their first
child. His congregation of about 50, still euphoric over a summer
mission trip to Zambia, are mourning, too.

“It’s just heartbreaking — people are heartbroken about it,” said
Lavonia native Sharon Johns, who didn’t know Ayers, but like most in
this small town of about 2,000 people, had heard about him.

At the Shell gasoline station where the shooting happened, owner Joe
Joseph said his regular customers have been coming in “all upset about
it.”

“This is a small, friendly town, and I’ve never had any problems here.
I didn’t know if it would hurt my business because people were scared
to come into my store,” Joseph said.

He released a security camera tape that captured the shooting and has
been shown on local TV.

Police said undercover officers with a northeast Georgia tri-county
drug and prostitution task force followed Ayers to the gas station
after he was seen dropping off a woman in town who had twice sold
drugs to officers.

While the minister went inside to use the ATM, police said, the
officers waited by the pumps in an unmarked black Cadillac Escalade.
Once Ayers returned to his car, officers identified themselves and
ordered him to open his door, police said. Ayers backed up and sped
away while police shot at him twice, the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation said. Ayers crashed a short distance away and died later
following surgery at Stephens County Hospital in Toccoa.

The GBI is investigating and officers involved in the shooting remain
on administrative leave, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said Sunday.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was being held at the
Stephens County Jail on charges of cocaine possession and
distribution, Bankhead said.

But Ayers was not a target of the drug sting, Stephens County Sheriff
Randy Shirley said.

Toccoa resident Joy Guadalupe said the community is confused about
what happened. “People don’t know what to believe so they’re drawing
their own conclusions,” she said Saturday. “If he didn’t have anything
to hide, then why did he run? Was he just spooked?”

Those who knew him said Ayers was a “squeaky clean kind of guy,” a
dedicated Christian.

His best friend, Adam Gragg, said Ayers was known for helping people
that others might shun as sinners because he believed they needed Jesus most.

“He always went to bad places, and he didn’t care what people thought
about it,” Gragg’s wife, Brittany, said.

Gragg said he knew Ayers for 10 years. “There’s no way he could have
been involved in anything illegal or lived a kind of secret life, and
us not know about it.”

Roger Shirley (no relation to the sheriff), head deacon and lifelong
member at Shoal Creek, believes his pastor drove the 20 miles to
Toccoa to buy tires for his wife’s car, went to the ATM for cash to
cover the purchase and was going to pick up his wife, who teaches at
Stephens County High School. If he was with a woman, it was someone he
was helping, Shirley said.

“They got the wrong person. I’d stake my life on it,” Shirley said.

When Jonathan and Abby moved into the Shoal Creek parsonage just over
a year ago, the church had no more than 20 members. Ayers brought a
fresh, contemporary style to the 100-plus-year-old church, a
pews-and-hymnal type place with a cemetery across the street. The
congregation grew to an average attendance of 50 or more, and Ayers
baptized 12 new members during the year, Shirley said.

At his Friday afternoon funeral service, more than 400 people filled
the church. Sunday, instead of a regular service, members gathered to
talk, cry, hug, pray and forgive.

Forgiveness has been hard for Shirley, even though he’s sure his
pastor has already forgiven. “I know I will eventually. But I can’t
right now,” he said.