Sheriff’s deputies search for gun in Flint River at Bainbridge

14127961190711 — A team of divers from the Lowndes County, GA, Sheriff's Office Dive Team looks underwater for a gun that may have been used in a September murder in Crisp County. The red buoy to the right of the boat is a reference point marker. The yellow line is attached to the active diver for safety. Three other divers on standby wait in and around the boat.

A team of divers from the Lowndes County, GA, Sheriff's Office Dive Team looks underwater for a gun that may have been used in a September murder in Crisp County. The red buoy to the right of the boat is a reference point marker. The yellow line is attached to the active diver for safety. Three other divers on standby wait in and around the boat. — A team of divers from the Lowndes County, GA, Sheriff’s Office Dive Team looks underwater for a gun that may have been used in a September murder in Crisp County. The red buoy to the right of the boat is a reference point marker. The yellow line is attached to the active diver for safety. Three other divers on standby wait in and around the boat.

Sheriff’s deputies from three Southwest Georgia counties spent most of Wednesday, Oct. 8 looking for a gun in the Flint River at Bainbridge, GA.

Divers from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office Underwater Rescue Team were taking turns diving underwater to look for a gun that may have been used in a murder in Crisp County, GA back in September, according to Capt. Gale Bowyer of the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office.

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office are assisting the Crisp County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Lt. Redell Walton of the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office. The Crisp County Sheriff’s Office and the GBI are investigating the shooting death of 20-year-old Jasperin Armstrong, whose body was found alongside a road in rural Crisp County on Sept. 15, 2014.

A Crisp County Sheriff’s Office investigator confirmed that the gun the divers were looking for is associated with that case, in which three suspects–including two from Bainbridge–have been arrested and charged. (See Related Story: Third person charged in Crisp County murder)

Lowndes County Sheriff's Office Dive Team van — Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team van

There was a group of four divers taking turns going underwater to look for the gun. Two other men were on the boat: one of them kept the boat in place on the water, while another held a safety line attached to the active diver. Small buoys were placed to serve as reference points, so the divers could tell where they had already searched along the river bottom.

Lowndes County Sheriff’s deputies said the water was about 15-20 feet deep at the spot they were diving at, not far from the bridge that goes over the Flint River on the U.S. 27/84 bypass. The outdoor temperature on Wednesday afternoon was 86 degrees–hot for October–but the water temperature was only about 70 degrees.