In the evening hours of November 22, 2016, a passerby in the parking lot of a Walgreens on Lawrenceville Highway in Lawrenceville, Georgia, discovered the unresponsive body of a man lying just outside a silver car. Employees of the pharmacy were alerted and promptly called 911 at 7:45 p.m. The man, later identified as 26-year-old Wesley J. Bryant, was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators from the Gwinnett County Police Department determined
that Bryant had been shot either inside or right next to his vehicle before he collapsed. His silver car was impounded for processing as evidence. For a period, the motive and the identity of the suspect remained unknown as detectives sought tips from the public and reviewed available surveillance footage.
On January 12, 2017, a breakthrough in the case was announced with the arrest of 21-year-old Christopher Lamont Middleton. Middleton was initially taken into custody on a probation violation. Following an interview with an investigator, he was charged with the murder of Wesley Bryant, as well as armed robbery. Middleton was subsequently booked into the Gwinnett County Jail.
