Bradley May, a 22-year-old Black man, was found fatally shot near his home in the Jonesboro area of Clayton County, Georgia, on the morning of May 19, 2021. May had moved into a condominium on Redland Drive only about two weeks earlier, in part so he could be closer to his restaurant job at the Atlanta airport and help care for his eight-month-old son. His family described him as an aspiring chef and a new father who was considering returning to school and trying to build a future for himself and his child.
May apparently never made it inside his home after arriving the previous night. His roommate discovered him the following morning, and early reports said his vehicle was still running and that nothing appeared to have been stolen. Police found him unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the neck. A neighbor later told reporters that he had heard a single gunshot at approximately 11:30 p.m. the night before May was found, although investigators did not publicly establish that account as the precise time of the shooting. Authorities initially indicated that an altercation may have preceded the gunfire.
The investigation quickly focused attention on a neighboring residence where May had been found. During the police response, officers were also attempting to evacuate the townhomes because of a fire, but resident Elex Brunson refused to come outside. A SWAT team was summoned, and officers eventually entered through the rear of the residence and took Brunson into custody without injury. At that stage, police did not publicly identify him as May's killer. Brunson, then 33, was initially charged with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and obstruction while investigators continued working to determine what had happened to May.
The evidence recovered from Brunson's residence ultimately became central to the homicide case. Investigators found blood spatter, a spent cartridge casing, a projectile and a handgun that had been placed in a cooler containing bleach. Prosecutors later said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined that the spent casing had been fired from that handgun. Gunshot residue was also found on Brunson. The forensic findings provided investigators with evidence connecting the weapon and Brunson to the shooting, and murder charges eventually followed.
More than five years after May's death, the case reached a Clayton County jury. In August 2026, Brunson was found guilty on all counts, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Brunson maintained his innocence during the proceedings, but the jury accepted the prosecution's case built around the physical and forensic evidence recovered from his home.
Senior Judge Linda Cowen sentenced Elex Brunson to life in prison without the possibility of parole, followed by a consecutive 10-year prison sentence. The conviction brought a resolution to a case that had begun with May's body being discovered outside his new home and an initially uncertain connection between the killing and the man taken into custody during the SWAT standoff. What began as a homicide investigation with no publicly identified killer ultimately resulted in Brunson being convicted of May's murder and receiving a sentence that will keep him imprisoned for life.
