BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Police are searching for the person who shot and killed a man Wednesday morning in Brunswick.
The deadly shooting happened inside a home on I Street and the victim has been identified as Robert Slay, 35.
His death comes just one week after 16-year-old MyKal Ellis was gunned down in front of his home. Ellis was a Brunswick High School football player and a man from Jacksonville was named as a suspect in his death.
“Another child gone. Another mother is weeping at the same time you’re dealing with your loss, so a whole neighborhood has been affected,” said one of Ellis’s relatives, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. She said Slay was a family friend.
She said the situation is so scary right now that the family does not know who to trust.
Shortly before nightfall on Wednesday, Brunswick police officers watched over a large gathering of people to make sure everyone was safe as several dozen family and friends of Slay gathered to pay respects following the news of his murder.
What led up to the shooting remains unclear, but his death comes a week after Ellis was shot to death on Johnston Street, just a three-minute drive from where Slay was killed.
Ellis’s relative said Slay was quiet, nice, humble and a family man.
“He wasn’t like a street person,” she said. “More trauma added to what we are already dealing with. He was in the neighborhood, and we knew him. So, my [redacted] has not even laid her own son to rest and here we got another thing a week later.”
His family believes Ellis was not the intended target of his shooting. Police identified Breon Hartley, 21, of Jacksonville as Ellis’s suspected killer.
This past weekend, a woman who was renting a blue house yards from where Ellis was murdered was arrested and charged with tampering with evidence in connection to Ellis’s death. She has been identified as Diandra Hightower, 37. Police used a search warrant to collect a weapon and other evidence from inside the house.
Neighbors told News4JAX that Hartley had been seen staying in the same house before the shooting that ended Ellis’s life. Brunswick police are still searching for Hartley.
The two latest murders combined with other recent shootings have left this community on edge.
“You don’t know if you’re talking to an enemy. It’s a bit much,” the relative said.
If anyone has information about this morning’s fatal shooting or the shooting that killed MyKal Ellis last week, you are urged to contact Brunswick police.