Aggravated Assault Under Georgia Law

Aggravated assault in Georgia is a simple assault made more serious in one of four ways listed in O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21(a): an intent to murder, rape, or rob; a deadly weapon or dangerous object; an object likely to cause strangulation; or a gun fired from a vehicle. The default sentence is one to 20 years, and the victim or the setting can raise the floor.

Every form starts with a simple assault

The word “assaults” in § 16-5-21(a) points back to the simple assault statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20(a). A simple assault happens in one of two ways: the person attempts to commit a violent injury to another, or the person does something that places another in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury.

The second route decided Zelaya v. State (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 2, 2025): two officers ducked for cover when a fleeing driver pointed a gun at them. The Court of Appeals upheld aggravated assault convictions because the only question was whether the officers were in reasonable apprehension of immediate violent injury, and the evidence showed they were. No shot was fired and no one was hurt.

The four forms in subsection (a)

Intent to murder, to rape, or to rob. The aggravating fact is the purpose behind the assault, not the tool.
A deadly weapon, or any object, device, or instrument that, used offensively against a person, “is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury”. The statute does not list qualifying objects; the question is how the object was used. This form has its own page on how Georgia treats a weapon or dangerous object in an assault charge.
Any object, device, or instrument that, used offensively, is likely to or actually does result in strangulation. The State does not have to prove that strangulation actually happened; “likely to” is enough. Georgia’s assault article defines strangulation as impeding normal breathing or blood circulation by pressure on the throat or neck, or by obstructing the nose and mouth.
Discharging a firearm without legal justification from within a motor vehicle, or after immediately exiting a vehicle, toward a person, an occupied motor vehicle, or an occupied building. Senate Bill 421, effective July 1, 2024, added the occupied vehicle and occupied building targets; the same law created a separate drive-by shooting offense in the street gang statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-15-4.1.

Sentencing ranges by victim and setting

Subsection (b) sets the default range of one to 20 years and opens with “Except as provided in subsections (c) through (m) of this Code section”. Those later subsections set their own ranges:

Situation	Subsection	Prison range
Default	(b)	1 to 20 years
Public safety officer on duty, firearm discharged by a person 17 or older	(c)(1)(A)	10 to 20 years, 10-year mandatory minimum
Public safety officer on duty, no firearm discharge and not body-only	(c)(1)(B)	5 to 20 years, 3-year mandatory minimum for a person 17 or older
Public safety officer on duty, body only	(c)(1)(C)	5 to 20 years
Victim 65 or older	(d)	3 to 20 years
Public transit vehicle or station	(e)	3 to 20 years
During theft of a commercial cargo vehicle or its cargo	(f)	5 to 20 years, a $50,000 to $200,000 fine, or both
Vehicle-discharge form, paragraph (a)(4)	(g)	5 to 20 years
Firearm used on a student, teacher, or school employee in a school safety zone	(h)	5 to 20 years
Spouses, former spouses, co-parents, parents and children, step and foster relationships, or household members other than siblings	(i)	3 to 20 years
Intent to rape a child under 14	(j)(1)	25 to 50 years
Officer of the court on duty	(k)	5 to 20 years
Emergency health worker or health care worker on a hospital campus	(l)	3 to 20 years
Utility worker, and code enforcement official for offenses on or after July 1, 2026	(m)	3 to 20 years

Three details sit outside the table. The public safety officer mandatory minimums in (c)(1)(A) and (B) cannot be suspended, stayed, probated, deferred, or withheld, but the court may go below them when the prosecutor and the defendant agree to a lower sentence. A conviction under subsection (c) also carries a fine of at least $2,000. And a person with a prior conviction for a listed “sexual felony” who is convicted of aggravated assault with intent to rape faces life in prison or a split sentence of prison followed by probation for life, with electronic monitoring as a probation condition, under (j)(2)(B).

Which version of the statute applies

The offense date decides which text governs. The Senate Bill 421 change to paragraph (a)(4) took effect July 1, 2024, and the utility worker range in subsection (m), added by House Bill 1033 (2024), applies to offenses committed on or after July 1, 2024. House Bill 483 (2026) added code enforcement officials to subsection (m) and to the matching simple assault, simple battery, battery, and aggravated battery provisions; the bill as passed by the House and Senate applies to offenses committed on or after July 1, 2026. To qualify, a code enforcement official must have a high school diploma or equivalent, have completed Level 1 code enforcement training, and work for or under contract with a city, county, or consolidated government performing safety inspections. For example, an incident in June 2026 involving a code enforcement inspector falls under the earlier ranges.

How the neighboring charges differ

Pointing a gun at someone is a separate misdemeanor, and the line between it and aggravated assault is the victim’s apprehension; see when pointing a gun is a misdemeanor instead of aggravated assault.
Aggravated battery turns on harm actually caused (losing a body part, a body part rendered useless, or serious disfigurement), not on the threat; see the injury elements of aggravated battery in Georgia.
Family and household relationships change the range in subsection (i) and also trigger Georgia’s family violence procedures, covered in how Georgia handles family violence assault cases.

Reading an aggravated assault charge

An indictment for aggravated assault answers five questions that set the exposure:

Which paragraph of subsection (a) is alleged: intent, weapon or object, strangulation, or vehicle discharge.
Which simple assault theory sits underneath it: an attempted violent injury, or reasonable apprehension.
Whether the alleged victim falls into a category in subsections (c) through (m), because that category, not the default, sets the floor.
Whether a firearm was discharged, which matters for the public safety officer mandatory minimum.
The date of the alleged offense, which decides whether the July 1, 2024 or July 1, 2026 changes apply.

Sources

O.C.G.A. § 16-5-19 (definition of strangulation, as reproduced in House Bill 483, Section 1).
O.C.G.A. § 16-5-20(a) (simple assault, two theories).
O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21(a)-(m) (forms and sentencing ranges; 2024 Georgia Code).
Office of Legislative Counsel, Summary of General Statutes Enacted at the 2024 Session (Senate Bill 421, Act 512; House Bill 1033, Act 566).
House Bill 483 (2026), Sections 3 and 7, as passed by the House and Senate (code enforcement officials; applicability date); Act 380.
Zelaya v. State, No. A25A1185 (Ga. Ct. App. Sept. 2, 2025) (reasonable apprehension; aggravated assault upheld without a shot fired).

General information about Georgia criminal law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.