Answers Sought Over Incarcerated Man Allegedly Involved In Armed Robbery

{SAVANNAH, GA) More information on a story we've been following for the past week. An armed robbery of a young woman leaving the Savannah Civic Center last Monday was allegedly committed by an inmate from the Coastal Transitional Center. A witness to the robbery followed the suspect and called police. Eugene Waters was arrested. He’s now in the Chatham County Jail facing several charges. In the past-- he's served time for several offenses ranging from aggravated assault to possession of cocaine. Friends and family of the latest victim are outraged this man was even out on the street.

When Linda Reese found out her best friend's daughter had been attacked outside the Civic Center, allegedly by a man incarcerated at the Coastal Transitional Center - she was horrified. Thanks to a witness - the man got away with only a dollar - but Reese knows it could have been much worse. The girl she calls her niece was left traumatized, “She cannot leave her home, she cannot leave and that's a terrible place to be right now - to know that you can not go out your door and that something like that's gonna happen.” In fact the victim - who does not want to be identified - has sent a letter to several local and state politicians, along with the Pardons and Parole Board. In it she describes the attack in full and says – “Words can not describe the fear I felt at that time - all I could think was that I was going to die and leave a husband and four beautiful babies behind."

Linda Reese hopes getting the story out to those in authority will get some changes made in the way the program handles inmates, “The more voices that are heard, the more it's gonna change which, I know all we can do here is be the voice, but the main people that it lies in the way are the higher ups - and we put them in office and we expect them to do the job that's supposed to be done and that's to make us safe.” And she'd like some answers from the Department of Corrections about how a violent offender got placed in the Transitional Program to begin with, “What I would like to know is how he slipped through the system - bottom line - how did he slip through the system - how are they gonna make it right and how are they gonna fix it?”

"3 On Your Side" has been trying to get answers to those questions from the Department of Corrections since the middle of last week. We were told today - they hope to have someone available to speak with us tomorrow. We'll of course let you know what they have to say.