Cash, 'suspicious substance' found at scene of Mercer basketball player's slaying

As the hunt for a second gunman in the downtown Macon slaying of a Mercer University basketball player entered its second day, investigators were tight-lipped about their search.

But their pursuit picked up steam as Wednesday wore on and a murder warrant was secured for the second suspect.

Police were said to be closing in on him.

As evening fell, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis revealed new details of what may have happened in the moments before player Jibri Bryan's Tuesday afternoon shooting death outside a gas mart.

Bryan, 23, from Savannah, was slain while sitting in a car at the Flash Foods at the corner of College and Forsyth streets, a half-mile from the Mercer campus.

The sheriff said deputies found a "suspicious substance" in a bottle on the ground outside the passenger door of Bryan's two-door Monte Carlo. They found "a wad" of cash outside the driver's door.

The substance was being tested at a crime lab to find out what it is.

"It wasn't pills or anything," the sheriff said.

There was, Davis added, possibly "some type of transaction going on" between Bryan and his two attackers, but he declined to speculate on what it may have involved.

"We don't have anything concrete," the sheriff said. "Something during their meeting went awry."

Authorities, Davis said, have apparently been helped in their search for clues and answers by an eyewitness who noted the getaway car's tag number, which bore a Bibb plate. Another bystander provided a clothing description of one of the gunmen.

The fatal episode was also recorded by security cameras at the downtown Macon gas mart where it happened.

That trove of investigative good fortune kick-started the probe and, from the outset, put authorities on the men's trails.

"This has been a very dynamic and fast-moving case," Davis said. "We've been able to make some very substantial progress."

As of Wednesday morning, one man was in custody, charged with felony murder.

That man, 24-year-old Jarvis Clinton Miller, himself shot and wounded in the 4 p.m. Tuesday gunfire, was caught soon after Bryan's death and taken to a nearby hospital.

He was still being treated there Wednesday, and one official said it could be a day or two before he is jailed.

The second gunman, believed to have fired the shot that killed Bryan, was still at large. He was said to have Atlanta ties.

The gunman on the run was thought to have ditched his getaway car, a 2012 Nissan Sentra, a few blocks from the store where Bryan was shot in the head.

Miller and the other suspect apparently wheeled into a parking lot at the food mart where Bryan was parked, sitting in his 2006 Chevrolet.

Bryan's car was backed into a space on the College Street side of the store when his assailants pulled up.

Davis, the Bibb sheriff, said that when Miller and the other alleged shooter got out of the Nissan, Miller circled around to the rear or passenger side of Bryan's car. The unnamed gunman strode up to Bryan's driver's side window.

Soon after that, the unnamed gunman opened fire with a pistol, the sheriff said, killing Bryan and possibly seriously wounding his alleged cohort, Miller, who was in the line of fire.

Investigators said Miller, shot in his chest, ran off. Deputies found him later on Orange Street, a block or so east of the shooting.

Bryan, a guard on the basketball team, was a second-year graduate student working on his MBA. He saw action in Mercer's 2014 NCAA basketball tournament upset win over Duke, snagging three rebounds and an assist.

His death was the city's first homicide of 2016.

A brief sheriff's report on the slaying noted that when deputies arrived, Bryan's passenger-side door was open and he was "slumped over between the driver seat and passenger seat."

A 29-year-old woman who works at the store told deputies she heard "several shots" but "didn't see anything," the report added.

She saw the Nissan riding away and told investigators its license plate number.

A customer there, Kenny Self, 27, said he had just pulled in and parked near the Flash Foods' front doors. He stayed in his car while a friend went in for beer and cigarettes.

Self glanced to his right, maybe 50 feet away, and noticed a man standing at the driver's window of Bryan's Monte Carlo.

"Next thing I know, there was a bunch of gunfire," Self told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

He recalled hearing "four or five" shots.

"I just saw a guy bend over into the window, talking to the driver. Then I looked away and then the gunshots happened," Self said.

As heavy rain fell on Wednesday, a few bunches of drenched orange flowers and white flowers -- Mercer colors -- were propped as a memorial on a curb near the spot where Bryan died.

As customers went in during the day, some spoke of the previous afternoon's drama. A store clerk told them she appreciated their concern. "I hate it happened," she said.

One patron, Kayce Underwood, who works at a medical office nearby, frequents the store. Sometimes she parks in the space where Bryan was.

"Everybody downtown comes to this store," Underwood said.

The store is one of the downtown area's few gas stations, and it anchors a well-traveled corner between Mercer's campus and the city center.

It sits just up a hill from a Ronald McDonald House, Daisy Park and the sprawling Medical Center, Navicent Health complex.

"If I felt unsafe," Underwood said, "I wouldn't come here. ... It's always busy. Doctors, nurses, everybody comes to this store. ... You wouldn't ever think that would happen right there."

Staff writers Liz Fabian, Linda S. Morris and Daniel Shirley contributed to this report. To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Cash, 'suspicious substance' found at scene of Mercer basketball player's slaying ."