Donato Bradford II was a 24-year-old Black man with a passion for music and a history as a competitive boxer. Originally from Augusta, he had moved to Atlanta to study at the SAE Institute. He was living at the Westmar Lofts, a student housing complex in the northwest part of the city, as he pursued his goals.
On the morning of August 1, 2024, Atlanta police responded to a call at the Westmar Lofts on West Marietta Street. Inside an apartment, they discovered Bradford, who had been shot.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. While he was found that morning, investigators later determined the fatal encounter had happened two nights earlier.
Surveillance video from the night of July 30, 2024, became central to the case. According to testimony from an Atlanta Police Department investigator, the footage showed a man approaching Bradford’s apartment door and knocking repeatedly. When Bradford opened the door, the man shot him, entered the apartment for a short time, and then left minutes later wearing different clothes.
Investigators identified the man in the video as Nahjel Williams, noting that a tattoo visible on the suspect’s arm matched one of Williams's. Police also used cellphone records to place Williams about a mile from the apartment complex shortly before the shooting, and they traced a vehicle seen nearby to his mother. Based on this evidence, authorities secured a warrant for Williams's arrest in November 2024.
Williams managed to evade capture for more than a year. The case saw a major development in February 2026, when Williams was arrested for a separate crime—the murder of a U.S. Postal Service worker, Dequavious Graves. Following that arrest, police were able to execute the outstanding warrant and charge Williams with the murder of Donato Bradford, as well as aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
In March 2026, Williams appeared in Fulton County court for a preliminary hearing. After reviewing the evidence presented by prosecutors, Judge Todd Ashley ruled that there was probable cause to move forward with the murder charge. As of that month, the ruling cleared the way for the case to be presented to a grand jury for indictment.
