Editor’s note: Yeshua Mathis, one of the three teenagers charged in the incident, was acquitted of all charges on Oct. 31, 2024. Read our updated coverage of him here.
An 18-year-old suspect in a Peachtree City homicide lost his father in a separate homicide earlier this month in South Fulton, according to a family friend. The law enforcement agencies investigating the two cases are aware of the link, but it was not known Thursday if they are related.
Jacobean Brown is one of three teenage boys accused of killing a 15-year-old girl at an apartment in Peachtree City on Tuesday. That shooting occurred 11 days after his father, Bryan Brown, was found shot to death outside a South Fulton bank.
Bryan Brown, 38, was a photographer and native of Blakely. His godmother, Sharon George, and childhood friend, Lisa George, who both live in Blakely, were still grieving his death when they heard the news about his son.
“This is shocking and difficult to process at this moment,” Sharon George said via text Thursday. “Unbelievable.”
Peachtree City police said they were aware of “reported connections” between one of their suspects and the “victim of an active murder investigation in South Fulton.”
“We will consider all evidence uncovered during our investigation ... including sharing information with other law enforcement agencies,” police said.
South Fulton police Lt. Ronnie Wyatt said the potential connection was “eyebrow-raising” and a coincidence worth exploring. However, he noted investigators will continue to work on their own respective cases while sharing information and will try not to jump the gun.
When asked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution if the Peachtree City homicide could be an act of retaliation, Wyatt said police didn’t have the facts to support that idea, though it’s not completely off the table.
“We are going to work vigorously, and there’s been a lot of sleepless nights,” he added. “We want to make sure we don’t leave any stone unturned.”
Jacobean Brown, Justus Smith and Yeshua Mathis, all 18, were arrested in connection with the death of 15-year-old Madison Gesswein, who was found in her bed with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Gesswein was a student at Whitewater High School in Fayetteville.
Officers responded around 6:30 a.m. to the Greens at Braelinn complex on Peachtree Station Circle after her mother found the teen unresponsive and called 911, police Assistant Chief Matt Myers said during a news conference Wednesday.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
A 911 call of the incident revealed how Gesswein’s mother woke up for work and saw a light on inside her daughter’s locked room. After entering, she told the dispatcher that the window was open and the blinds were “a mess.” She said her child was unresponsive and bleeding from the head.
“There’s a lot of blood,” she said. She then performed CPR until authorities arrived, while the dispatcher counted the beats.
Myers said the official cause of death will be determined by the county medical examiner, but an entry to Gesswein’s head appears consistent with a gunshot wound.
The teenager had known the suspects for some time and the shooting was related to matters between them, police said.
“They knew whose apartment they were at,” Myers said, adding that police were investigating how the suspects got inside.
All three suspects were booked into the Fayette County Jail and are each facing a murder charge. The fatal shooting was the first in Peachtree City this year, police said.
Just 11 days earlier, Bryan Brown was found dead inside a vehicle at a Wells Fargo near College Park, according to South Fulton police. Officers responded around 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 10 to the bank on Old Bill Cook Road and found Brown shot inside a vehicle in the parking lot.
Credit: Bryan Brown - Facebook
Credit: Bryan Brown - Facebook
He was a photographer who lived with his husband and had a studio in Atlanta. He was working on opening a second studio in Blakely when he was found dead.
No suspects have been publicly identified. Tipsters can remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477, texting information to 274637 or visiting the Crime Stoppers website.
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