The morning of August 18, 2025, began as any other at the Clear Creek Apartments in Lavonia, Georgia, but the calm was shattered by the sound of a gunshot. At approximately 8:53 a.m., Lavonia Police were dispatched to the apartment complex on Clubhouse Way after receiving a report of a person shot. Inside an apartment in the 200 building, officers made a grim discovery; a man, identified as 31-year-old Eric Legrand “EJ” Thompson Jr., was found deceased from a gunshot wound.
Eric, a Black/African American man with ties to the Commerce-Lavonia area, was known affectionately as 'EJ' to his friends and family. He was a devoted father to his daughter, Karmony, and a dedicated employee at Purina.
The initial investigation at the scene quickly pointed to the incident being the result of a domestic dispute. Witnesses provided a description of a suspect, and a lookout was broadcast to surrounding law enforcement agencies. A short time later, a Georgia State Patrol Trooper spotted an individual matching the description walking near a local hotel. The man was identified as Christavier Mikequez “Quez” Brown and was taken into custody without incident. The Lavonia Police Department, with the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, processed the crime scene and gathered evidence.
By the afternoon of the shooting, investigators had charged Christavier Mikequez “Quez” Brown with felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and tampering with evidence. Authorities allege that after shooting Thompson, Brown threw the gun into a wooded area near the apartment complex before he was apprehended at a nearby hotel. In the weeks that followed, a Franklin County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment against Brown, formalizing the charges of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, and several other related offenses. It was revealed that at the time of the shooting, Brown was out on bond for a previous arrest in March 2024 on 20 counts, including theft by receiving stolen property and obstruction. The case against Christavier Mikequez “Quez” Brown is now moving through the Franklin County court system, where he is being held in the Franklin County Detention Center. A bond hearing for Brown was initially scheduled but had to be continued because his defense attorney failed to appear.
