A Mercer University basketball player was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon outside a Bibb County convenience store.
Jibri Bryan, a 23-year-old graduate student from Savannah, was one of two people shot Tuesday at a Flash Foods on Forsyth Street, police said. The store clerk heard gunshots at about 4 p.m., went outside and saw a man, who was later identified as Bryan, slumped over inside a white Chevrolet Monte Carlo parked next to the store, police said. The clerk called the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office to report the incident.
When deputies arrived they found Bryan dead in the Monte Carlo.
Mercer University President William D. Underwood said the school’s community is grieving the tragic death of a student who had been part of the university’s family for six years.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Bryan family,” Underwood said in a statement.
Athletics officials said the loss is felt throughout the department.
“Jibri was always cheerful and greeted everyone in the department with a smile,” athletic director Jim Cole said. “He will not only be missed by his basketball family but by all of us in the University Athletic Department.”
Mercer University head men’s basketball coach Bob Hoffman said Bryan “was a special young man who was a great contributor to our team and did everything that was asked of him.”
Bryan, a guard, started each of the Bears’ 35 games last season, averaging just under eight points per game. His playing time had been limited this season by a knee injury.
Police said the other man who was shot, whose name has not yet been released, was taken to the Navicent Health was in what was described as a white Nissan Sentra, with the driver that drove up in the Nissan prior to the shooting.
Investigators are looking for a white Nissan Sentra, possibly a 2012.
The incident is currently under investigation. Anyone with any information in reference to this incident is urged to contact the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500, ask to leave a message for an “on-call” investigator or call Macon Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.
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