Man seeking revenge convicted in wrong-person killing

To avenge the shooting of his nephew in Chicago, Jamaar Bracey, who resided in Gwinnett County, drove to Cobb County in January. Using social media, he found who he thought was the perpetrator, however, Bracey had identified and been stalking the wrong guy, Shawn Gray, a 22-year-old father of two.

On January 17, Bracey shot and killed Gray in front of a hotel off Paces Ferry Road in the Cumberland area. For his revenge killing misidentification, Bracey was sentenced last week by a Cobb judge to life in prison for killing an innocent man. 

This all stems from a Jan. 6 drive-by in Chicago, where Bracey’s nephew was shot in the neck. In the days that followed, Bracey found “a group on Facebook and believed someone in the group was responsible for the death of his nephew solely because they had previously lived at the residence where the shooting occurred.”

The son of Gray’s girlfriend was one of the people Bracey identified in that group. Bracey later learned from Facebook that the girlfriend’s son was staying at the Courtyard Atlanta/Vinings in Cumberland. Gray, his girlfriend, and her son had come to the Atlanta area to celebrate her birthday. Bracey began stalking the three including sitting outside the hotel and placing a GPS tracker on Gray’s car that he tracked for 24 hours.

According to the Cobb County DA’s office, “Bracey texted his sister, Kirby Bracey, and his co defendant, girlfriend Ashley Davis, about the tracker and his victim’s whereabouts.” DA Flynn Broady said, “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.”

Bracey was later identified as the shooter by detectives using social media and geolocation data. He was arrested in North Carolina in February. Evidence presented during Bracey’s trial showed that after shooting and killing Gray, Bracey wrote on Facebook, “Hurt me? I’ll let karma do its job. Hurt my family? I’ll become karma.”

Bracey was found guilty of murder by a Cobb jury Sept. 21. The following day, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus five years.

“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.”