Man seeking revenge convicted of killing stranger
Sep. 29—In January, Jamaar Bracey drove to Cobb County to avenge the shooting of his nephew in Chicago. He'd found who he thought was the perpetrator on Facebook. He stalked him, and shot him dead in front of a hotel off Paces Ferry Road in Cumberland.
But Bracey had the wrong guy, and last week was sentenced by a Cobb judge to life in prison for killing an innocent man: Shawn Gray, a 22-year-old father of two.
Bracey's nephew was shot in the neck in a January 6 drive-by in Chicago. In the days after, Bracey, a 37-year-old resident of Lawrenceville, quickly found "a group on Facebook whom he believed was responsible solely because they had previously lived at the residence where the shooting occurred."
One of the people in that group — the son of Gray's girlfriend — was staying at the Courtyard Atlanta/Vinings in Cumberland, Bracey found on Facebook. Gray had come to the Atlanta area with his girlfriend and her son to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday.
Bracey began stalking the family, at one point sitting outside the hotel for a 10-hour period and placing a GPS tracker on Gray's car.
"Meanwhile, Bracey texted his sister, Kirby Bracey, and his codefendant, Ashley Davis, about the tracker and his victim's whereabouts," according to the DA's office. "Around 3:30am on January 17, 2021, Bracey and Davis followed Gray back to the hotel. Bracey ultimately snuck up on Gray and executed him in the parking lot, firing a total of six rounds, four of which struck Gray."
Detectives identified Bracey as the shooter using social media and geolocation data.
"There was no evidence ever found that Gray had any association with Bracey or his nephew other than dating the mother of the someone who formerly lived at the Chicago residence where Bracey's nephew was shot," the DA's office said. "Now, Bracey will spend the rest of his life in prison."
