In a quiet Cordova neighborhood, a brief moment of eye contact between two men escalated into a fatal encounter, leaving one man dead and a community in shock. The victim, 61-year-old Bryan Hervey, a male resident known for being actively involved in monitoring the security of his neighborhood, was fatally shot on May 15, 2019. The tragic event unfolded in the 1200 block of Linnean Cove, a street that would become the scene of a meticulously pieced-together homicide investigation.
The
incident began when Hervey drove past his neighbor, Bryant Ward, who was sitting in a car with his sister. According to Ward's sister, her brother became upset after making eye contact with Hervey. In a sudden burst of anger, Ward leaned out of his car window and began firing shots at Hervey's vehicle. The assault did not end there; Ward then exited his car and continued to shoot at Hervey. Hervey, wounded, desperately fled his vehicle and ran towards a nearby home, crying out for help. Tragically, he collapsed, but not before securing a crucial piece of evidence that would lead to his killer's capture. In his hand, investigators found a piece of paper with the license plate number of the shooter's car written on it.
The shooting was captured on a resident's doorbell camera, showing Hervey's desperate attempt to get help as gunshots rang out in the background. His vehicle, left nearby, was riddled with bullet holes and had shattered windows. Investigators recovered more than two dozen shell casings from the scene, a testament to the ferocity of the attack. The license plate number Hervey had managed to write down led sheriff's deputies to a vehicle that closely matched the one from which the shots were fired. This critical clue led to the arrest of Bryant Ward, then 24, several days later.
Ward, who had a prior history of arrests including theft and assault, was indicted on first-degree murder charges in October 2019. In February 2022, Bryant Ward, then 26, pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Bryan Hervey. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the senseless act of violence that stemmed from a fleeting moment of perceived disrespect.
