Javon Cherrl Smith was a 21-year-old Black man from Columbus, Georgia, known to friends and family by the nickname “BoBo.” Late on September 11, 2023, the night around him narrowed to a single call for help—officers were dispatched to the Wilson Apartments in the 3400 block of 8th Avenue for a report of a person down. When police arrived, they found Smith suffering from a gunshot wound.
Paramedics tried to save him, but the effort ran out of time, and a deputy coroner pronounced him dead shortly after midnight, at 12:01 a.m. on September 12.
In the hours after the shooting, investigators from the Violent Crimes Unit took over, trying to reconstruct what happened in a place that had already been rattled by recent violence. Reports at the time noted this was the second shooting at the apartment complex within roughly two days, adding urgency and fear to the investigation as detectives worked leads and interviewed anyone who might have seen the gunfire, the argument that preceded it, or the direction the shooter fled.
As the case moved from chaos toward a clearer outline, police said they developed probable cause and obtained warrants for a suspect: Jadarious Greene, 18. The warrants listed murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and authorities appealed to the public for information on where he could be found.
More than a year passed before the search ended in handcuffs. On October 8, 2024, law enforcement teams—including the U.S. Marshals Service and local agencies—took Greene into custody without incident, and he was booked on the same charges that had been tied to Smith’s death: murder and felony possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. News coverage at the time reported that Greene was expected to appear in court the next morning for an initial proceeding as the case moved into its next phase.
