Briuna Hartry didn’t show up for work last Friday morning. Co-workers at the Cook Building became concerned, because that wasn’t like her.
The Milledgeville Police Department was contacted, and a pair of officers performed a welfare check on Richmond Street, off West Hancock Street. There was no response, so one of the officers kicked in the front door. In a back bedroom of the home, the officers discovered the worse. Hartry was dead, alongside a second person, identified as Jujuan Taylor. A handgun lay at Taylor’s side.
The case was ruled a murder-suicide. Hartry was 33 weeks pregnant. The Baldwin County Solicitor General’s Office had no case file on the couple and was not aware of any previous incidents.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Solicitor General Skye Gess. “We just want everybody to know that our office is always one call away, and we are here.”
Several of Taylor’s family members later gave an interview with WMAZ/ Channel 13, telling the reporter that Taylor’s mental health recently began spiralling. Several days before the shooting, according to relatives, Taylor checked himself into an Atlanta hospital and posted a Facebook Live video while wandering around the hospital, acting erratically.
Posted Taylor on Facebook several days before the incident: “Lord please take the pain and anger away that’s inside those that are hurting, for they might be too prideful to call on you themselves.”