Joslyn Michael Gray, a 49-year-old Black/African American man from Orlando, Florida, was killed in the early-morning hours of March 23, 2024, during a shooting at an after-hours gathering in the Pine Hills area of Orange County. At approximately 3:34 a.m., Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to the area of North Pine Hills Road and Silver Star Road after reports of gunfire. When deputies arrived, they found Gray and Errol Sylvester Irving suffering from gunshot wounds.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene. The shooting occurred in the 2700 block of North Pine Hills Road, inside a unit in a shopping plaza that was labeled as a tax office but was allegedly being operated as an illicit after-hours club. Authorities later clarified that the shooting did not occur inside the neighboring Creole Bakery and that the bakery had no connection to the establishment where the killings took place.
In the immediate aftermath, investigators publicly released little information about what had led to the violence. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office initially described the investigation as active and ongoing, with no identified suspect or announced motive. As detectives reconstructed what happened inside the gathering, however, the case changed significantly. Investigators eventually concluded that Gray was not simply an unintended victim of violence at the club; they alleged that he was specifically targeted. According to the sheriff’s office, Christopher Daveian Haynes was attending the party and approached Gray before allegedly drawing a firearm and shooting at him multiple times. Irving was standing near Gray when the gunfire erupted and was also struck and killed. Authorities have not publicly disclosed what they believe motivated the alleged attack on Gray.
The investigation increasingly focused on Haynes after detectives examined video recorded at the party and interviewed people who had been present. Authorities said multiple witnesses identified Haynes as the person shown in the footage in connection with the shooting. Based on the evidence developed during the homicide investigation, detectives established probable cause and obtained an arrest warrant for Haynes on April 22, 2024. By that point, he was no longer in the Orlando area, and authorities began working to locate him outside Florida.
The search ended about a month later. On May 22, 2024, the U.S. Marshals Service located Haynes in Nashville, Tennessee, and took him into custody. He was initially confined in the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office Jail while arrangements were made to return him to Florida. At the time of the arrest, authorities said he would face first-degree murder charges connected to the deaths of Gray and Irving. The arrest marked a major development in a case that had begun two months earlier with investigators unable to publicly name a suspect.
After Haynes was extradited to Orange County, prosecutors brought the evidence before a grand jury. On June 26, 2024, the grand jury indicted Christopher Daveian Haynes on two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm, one count associated with each killing. Prosecutors and investigators cited the party video and witness identifications as significant evidence supporting the case. Reporting following the indictment stated that Haynes was being held without bond in the Orange County Jail. The charges and indictment represent accusations rather than proof of guilt, and Haynes remains entitled to the presumption of innocence unless convicted in court.
Available reporting therefore identifies one accused suspect in Gray’s killing: Christopher Daveian Haynes. Investigators have alleged that Gray was the intended target and that Irving was killed because he happened to be standing nearby when the shooting began. No additional shooter or accomplice has been publicly identified in the reporting reviewed, and authorities have not publicly explained the alleged motive for targeting Gray. Online searches through August 18, 2026, did not produce reliable reporting establishing that Haynes had been convicted, acquitted, sentenced, or that a completed trial had occurred in this case. The latest substantive publicly reported court development located was the June 2024 indictment on the two first-degree murder-with-a-firearm counts and his detention without bond following extradition to Orange County.
