Inside a 72-hour manhunt: Cop says Mercer player Jibri Bryan's alleged killer was 'hiding really hard'

The hunt for murder suspect Damion Deray Henderson more or less began with a nickname -- his.

In the hours after Mercer University basketball player Jibri Bryan was shot dead outside a downtown Macon gas mart late Tuesday afternoon, the nickname helped put police on Henderson's trail.

Early on, as law enforcement officials dug up all they could about Henderson, they scoured his criminal past and tracked down people he might turn to for help.

"It was a team effort from the get-go," Deputy John Edgar of the U.S. Marshals Service said. "We knew it was a very important case."

Bryan's death at the Flash Foods store half a mile from the Mercer campus drew concern from not only the college community but also the sporting world.

National news outlets reported on the slaying, which happened along a main thoroughfare at Forsyth and College streets, in a spot almost equidistant from the university and the Government Center.

Authorities believe there was some kind of transaction between Bryan and two men he encountered outside the store. Police aren't yet clear on what their meeting might have entailed.

Investigators found a suspicious bottled substance and a wad of about $300 cash lying beside Bryan's Chevy Monte Carlo, which was backed into a space near a patch of trees and shrubs. Bryan, shot in the head, died in the driver's seat.

After the shooting, which was recorded by parking-lot security cameras, the two men who'd approached Bryan took off. One on foot, the other in the Nissan Sentra that they arrived in.

Authorities said Henderson drove away in the car. It was found nearby hours later, and its owner, a west Macon woman, is thought to have helped police identify Henderson as a suspect.

"We didn't back off," Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said. "We were sleepless until we had our guy."

'HIDING REALLY HARD'

By Wednesday morning, with one of Bryan's alleged assailants already in custody, Bibb investigators and members of Edgar's Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force had a good idea where Henderson, a stocky ex-con from Atlanta's south side, might be.

That's when his nickname, "Tyson," came into play. Some of the people investigators talked to mentioned it, said Edgar, the deputy U.S. Marshal.

Henderson is known on the street as Tyson because of his beefy, 5-foot-7, 200-pound frame. His face and physique favor boxing great Mike Tyson.

Henderson, who turned 34 earlier this month, was wanted in a pawnshop stickup in 2000, back when he was 18. He later spent more than a decade in prison for armed robbery and aggravated assault convictions. He was released from prison in August 2013.

Lately Henderson was thought to frequent the Jonesboro area.

But as Wednesday and Thursday passed with little sign of him, authorities worried Henderson might flee the state, maybe to Louisiana where he was said to have ties.

"It was a difficult case," Edgar said. "It wasn't normal. He was hiding really hard."

By Friday evening, though, the marshals had tracked Henderson to an apartment complex in DeKalb County.

Edgar said deputies caught wind that Henderson might be with "an associate" who lived there in Decatur.

Before it got dark, the deputies saw a man with Henderson's compact build step outside one of the apartments.

A woman was with him. From a distance, deputies scoped them out.

"They snuggled and hugged and kissed," Edgar said. "It appeared maybe like it was the last time they were gonna see each other. Maybe like he was gonna pack his bags and get out of town."

The woman drove away and the man walked back into the apartment, which lies north of Memorial Drive, just inside Interstate 285 on Atlanta's east side.

Deputies pulled the woman over after she left.

She was "not quite truthful at first," Edgar said.

He said the woman told them the fellow she'd kissed wasn't Henderson, but rather the associate of Henderson's, who stands 6-foot-3.

That's when Edgar knew deputies might have their man.

The guy that the woman claimed she had just been smooching on was no 6-footer. He was much shorter.

He was, Edgar thought, Tyson-like.

'RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE'

About 6:30 p.m. Friday, the marshals banged on the apartment door. No one answered so they busted in.

When they did, Henderson, in his socks, sprinted out a back door.

"He was actually faster than I thought he was gonna be," Edgar said. "It was like he was running for his life. ... He knows he's probably going away a long time."

Deputies chased Henderson some 300 yards to a vacant apartment where they found him hiding in a closet.

He smelled like he'd been drinking, Edgar said, and he looked worn out, as if he hadn't slept much.

He had on a gray shirt and colorful pants with a collage of various beer-company logos printed on them. He told deputies they were jogging pants.

"They weren't fast enough," Edgar said.

On Saturday afternoon in a tiny courtroom at the Bibb jail where he was being held, Henderson didn't say much at his first-appearance hearing.

Charged with felony murder, he was denied bond. He asked for a probable-cause hearing, which a judge set for Feb. 22.

Henderson mentioned that he didn't yet have an attorney.

The hearing lasted all of a minute.

The judge addressed him as "Mr. Henderson."

His nickname didn't come up.

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 8:21 PM with the headline "Inside a 72-hour manhunt: Cop says Mercer player Jibri Bryan's alleged killer was 'hiding really hard' ."