On an autumn evening in Crowley, Louisiana, the life of 26-year-old Brydon Gray was cut short by gunfire. On October 28, 2018, at approximately 5:15 PM, officers from the Crowley Police Department were dispatched to the 700 block of Leslie Amos Drive, where they discovered Gray suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a local hospital but was ultimately pronounced dead.
The investigation revealed that Gray had been outside his residence with another person when a shooter approached from behind the home and opened fire, striking him multiple times.
In the days that followed, detectives worked to piece together the events that led to Gray's death. Through witness interviews, a suspect was identified as Ronald Lathers Jr. of New Orleans. Investigators gathered enough evidence to secure an arrest warrant for Lathers on the charge of second-degree murder, which was signed by a judge with a bond set at $550,000. On November 6, 2018, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, in collaboration with the New Orleans Police Violent Offender Squad, located and arrested Lathers at an apartment complex in New Orleans. He was subsequently booked into the Orleans Parish Correctional Center.
The tragedy surrounding Brydon Gray's death was compounded by a shocking act of violence during his funeral service on November 10, 2018. As mourners gathered at the First Baptist Church in Crowley to pay their final respects to both Gray and his mother, who had passed away just two days after her son, gunfire erupted. A man was shot and seriously wounded as he was exiting the church, causing panic among the nearly 300 attendees. The shooters reportedly fired from behind a bush before fleeing the scene. The incident left the community and Gray's grieving family in a state of further shock and sorrow.
