Second suspect arrested in Georgia basketball player's killing

By Rich McKay

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A second suspect in the slaying of a Georgia university basketball player was in police custody on Saturday after being arrested in connection with the Feb. 2 shooting in front of a Macon convenience store.

Damion Deray Henderson, 33, has been charged with felony murder in the death of Jibri Bryan, 23, a student-athlete at Mercer University in Macon, according to jail records. Henderson is being held without bond at a facility in Macon.

Police and the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force tracked the suspect to a vacant apartment in Decatur, Georgia, about 85 miles (137 km) northeast of Macon, the Macon Telegraph reported. He was arrested there on Friday evening after police found him hiding in a closet, the paper said.

Bryan was shot in the head in the parking lot of a store near a busy downtown Macon intersection. No motive for the shooting has been disclosed.

Witnesses said Bryan was sitting in the driver's seat of his car when he was accosted by two gunmen. Witnesses said four or five shots were fired, and a wad of cash and a bottle filled with a suspicious substance was found at the scene, the Telegraph reported.

A second suspect, Jarvis Clinton Miller, was wounded at the scene, likely shot by his accomplice, Lieutenant Randy Gonzalez of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said.

Miller, 24, who is also charged with felony murder, was found a few blocks away with a chest wound shortly after the shooting, police said. He is recovering under armed guard at a local hospital.

Bryan, a 6-foot-4-inch guard from Savannah, Georgia, started in each of Mercer's 35 games in the 2014-2015 season, according to his online biography on the team's website. He played only six games in the current season because of a knee injury.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Paul Simao)