A man was charged Thursday morning after getting drunk and shooting a gun inside a Peachtree City neighborhood, authorities said.

Officers responded to a home on South Fairfield Drive about 8:15 a.m. after getting calls from concerned neighbors about a stranger firing a handgun while walking around outside with a machete, police said.

The man, later identified as 32-year-old Jose Garcia-Garcia, reportedly went into a home where several children live, Peachtree City police Lt. Brad Williams said.

Officers surrounded the home and were able to get the children and the man outside without incident.

“What happened was the brother was over at the house — he’d been drinking — and got a gun and decided he was going to test it in the backyard,” Williams said, adding that the houses in the neighborhood sit very close to each other on small lots. “It’s definitely not the right place for it.”

Police determined Garcia-Garcia was firing a .22 caliber pistol into the ground while inebriated, authorities said.

He faces three misdemeanors in connection with the incident, including reckless conduct, discharging a firearm under the influence of alcohol and firing a gun within 50 yards of a highway, police said.

Officers arrested him at the scene, but Garcia-Garcia was turned away at the Fayette County Jail because he had a fever, police said. He was given a citation that included his charges and ordered to report back to the jail at a later date.

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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