UPDATE: Authorities probing homicide case in Baldwin County

Published 6:33 pm Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Local, state and federal law enforcement authorities are working together to investigate the homicide of a man in Baldwin County.

The victim’s body was discovered on the living room floor of his single-wide mobile home on the 100 block of South Edwards Street about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Brad King, who heads the criminal investigations division, identified the victim as Chavontae Braddy. 

“The victim is in his 30s,” King said. “That is the residence where he lived and that is the vehicle he was known to drive.”

The car, a dark-colored Chevrolet Impala, was parked in front of the residence Tuesday afternoon. King said there were several “defects” on the vehicle consistent with bullet strikes on the passenger’s side. 

The outside of the mobile home also had several defects.

King said Braddy’s sister discovered her brother’s body inside the residence.

“She went there to check on him after she could not reach him on the phone,” King said.

Immediately after finding her brother shot, the woman called 911.

The victim appeared to have been shot multiple times.

The detective said there was a large presence of law enforcement officers who converged on the neighborhood after the 911 call was made.

Deputies and detectives with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, along with detectives from the Milledgeville Police Department, were seen working together at the scene. Other law enforcement officers present included an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), special agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Gang Task Force and a member of the U.S. Marshal’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. The crime scene was processed by crime scene specialists with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 6 Office in Milledgeville.

“At this point, we have discovered some firearms-related evidence in the yard,” he told The Union-Recorder at the scene.

King said it was too premature to determine what might have led up to the shooting.

The preliminary investigation leads detectives to believe that the shooting happened sometime late Monday.

“It certainly appears that it was last night (Monday),” King said. “Further inspection of the victim will tell us a little more about that. But at this moment, I don’t have any reason to not believe that this occurred last night (Monday).”

He noted that there were no emergency calls about gunshots anytime Tuesday in the southside neighborhood.

King said an officer with the Milledgeville Police Department was patrolling in the area late Monday and heard the sound of gunshots.

“The officer called it in about 11:30 p.m. Monday,” King said. “It’s my understanding that our units and their units rode the area, but had no contact with anybody.”

The victim’s body was removed from the residence Tuesday by a deputy coroner with the Baldwin County Coroner’s Office. The body will be sent to the GBI Crime Laboratory in Decatur where an autopsy will be performed later this week.

King said detectives were pulling video surveillance footage to see where the victim had been before the shooting.

“We’ve done a number of interviews on scene, and we’re working on a neighborhood canvas to see whether anybody heard or saw anything last night (Monday,” King said.

Anyone with information about the fatal shooting is asked to call the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip Line at 478-445-5102 or 911.