Ritz-Carlton manager wounded

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, February 11, 2023

EATONTON, Ga. — The night manager of the Ritz-Carlton at Lake Oconee was wounded in the arm after someone fired gunshots into his car as he drove along Ga. Route 44 in Putnam County late Wednesday.

The shooting reportedly took place in the area of Harmony Crossing and what is known as the Pyramid, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills.

As of Thursday afternoon, no one had been arrested in connection with the shooting.

Sills identified the victim as 67-year-old Ralph Rella of Forsyth.

The victim was traveling southbound along Ga. Route 44, or what also is referred to as Lake Oconee Parkway, in a 2012 Hyundai Sonata.

“Someone in a white car, possibly a BMW, pulled up behind him and then moved up alongside his car, and somebody inside that car fired multiple shots at the victim and his car,” Sills told The Union-Recorder.

One of the bullets struck the driver’s side window of the victim’s car and then struck Rella in his left arm, Sills said.

The sheriff said at least nine other bullets struck the outside of Rella’s car. The car was later towed to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, where crime scene evidence will be gathered.

Sills said the bullets came from either a 9mm or a .40-caliber handgun.

After the shooting, the person or people responsible sped down the road and were never reportedly seen again by the victim.

Sills said Rella drove himself to the emergency department of Putnam General Hospital in Eatonton for medical treatment.

He was treated there before he later was taken by ambulance to Atrium Health Navicent, The Medical Center in Macon.

Sills said Sgt. Justin Brock was sent to the Ritz-Carlton on Thursday to see if could obtain video surveillance footage that might be helpful to authorities trying to solve the case.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office in Eatonton at 706-485-8557.