Law&Crime Sidebar - Ex-Soccer Star Killed During Shootout While Bartending at Georgia Bar

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

A 21-year-old bartender was shot and killed while finishing up her shift at a Georgia bar on Sunday. Authorities said Brianna Long was struck by a stray bullet after gunfire erupted outside the bar. She died hours later at a hospital. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks it down with former FBI agent Bobby Chacon.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at https://bit.ly/POM-SIDEBARHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A 21-year-old college student and soccer star was tragically killed by a stray bullet. We bring on former FBI agent Bobby Chacon to talk about what law enforcement may be doing to find those responsible. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey there, everybody.

So first of all, before we get started, as you can tell, we are in a different studio. We're always trying things out. We're always changing things up. The goal is to give you the best experience. But I have to ask, what do you think? Seriously, leave a comment. Let us know if you like the studio, you hate it. What do you like about it?

What do you don't? We can always go back to the other setup. Either way, really, really do appreciate your feedback. We welcome it. Over now to Valdosta, Georgia, where 21-year-old Brianna Long, a high school soccer star, was reportedly killed by a stray bullet. This is an incredibly sad case. We're talking about the death of a young woman in the prime of her life.

She was attending Valdosta State University, studying to become a dental hygienist. She was supposed to graduate next year. In fact, at a 5,000 students, she had been selected as a regional winner for positive athlete, Georgia when she was in high school. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says that Long was working at this bar called the pier in Remerton. It's a part of Valdosta. She was a bartender, and she was finishing

up at around 2.30 a.m. on Saturday, October 28th, finishing up her shift. The bar was closed. She was inside. When shots were apparently fired from outside the bar, one of those bullets struck her, killed her. We're not sure at this time if anyone else was hit. Also, at the time of this recording,

authorities haven't announced any suspects or if anyone has been apprehended. Let me bring on retired FBI agent and attorney, Bobby Chacon. Bobby, it's great to see you. I wish it was under better circumstances. Such a tragic case when we talk about the death of someone so young. Let's first start off. Just what's your reaction to this?

Well, I'm with you. Here's somebody in the problem of their life. High school soccer star in the community going to college. You're going to start a career. I'm working as a bartender trying to pay bills probably and enjoy her life. And the randomness of it is what really struck me. The fact that you could be standing there, not in a violent situation, not in the middle of a riot, at the end of your shift, the bars close you're probably cleaning up, maybe

preparing for the next day, and out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning, a bullet comes through a window or through a wall and is accurate enough to strike you and kill you. It's just the randomness of it seems so cruel. And that's really what struck me, the randomness of it and the cruelty. Yeah, we hear about these all the time. time in kind of gang-related shootings, when there's these shootouts, there's collateral damage, there's casualties. It's really, really sad. What do you think is happening, though, behind the scenes to figure out what happened here and who did this? Well, the first thing they're doing

is interviewing everybody that worked at the bar that night. They're trying to find as many patrons of the bar that night that were there to see if there was any dispute inside the bar, because oftentimes, as we've seen before, something happens inside the bar and the consequences spill outside the bar. Particularly closing, something could have happened earlier in the evening, and then somebody gets kicked out of the bar and they wait outside the bar until closing when the person they had the beef with has to come out. So that's the first thing they're probably doing.

Was there any altercations in the ball? Looking at the video in the bar, interviewing as many people that were in that bar that night, did anybody have a beef that didn't bump into, even the slightest thing, because we know now people are so bent on violence sometimes. Even the slightest little incident inside that bar could mean that somebody was laying in wait outside the bar and everybody that comes out at closing and then the altercation kind of catches fire again.

So that's, I think, what they're doing now. Yeah, I mean, we just covered another story of that shooting out in Brooklyn over a noise complaint and that ended in two people getting killed. Shooter also was killed as well by police, but that's a separate story. There was also an aspect I was reading about this that apparently there were bullets that hit

not only the bar, but there were bullets that hit the cars that were maybe in the parking lot. Do you think investigators are trying to take those bullets and somehow matching them to a weapon? I mean, is that a way to identify who the shooter was? Well, yeah, first thing you want to do is be able to identify the weapon, the caliber and the make and model, if you can, the other thing is if you can determine where they, you know, struck from the angles, you can maybe determine where the gun was fired from. Was it fired from a moving car? Was it fired from? Was it fired from from a nearby building or residence. So those things you have to piece together with the ballistics.

And you do that kind of analysis to say, well, the bullets came from over here or they came from a moving car. They came from a moving car, for example. Then you want to start looking at video cameras in the neighborhood. You know, I don't know, it says the pier. I don't know what kind of neighborhood

this bar is built around. But if there are videos from businesses or other homes in the area, you want to start gathering that video as well. It's interesting you say that. I was reading about it. And one of the custom that was there that night says that she feels there's been ongoing violence in that area,

recommended that the bars be shut down. I thought that was an interesting comment. Yeah, that would be very telling, obviously. If that's the case, then you've got kind of, you know, you could have an ongoing turf war between two violent gangs. I don't know. I don't know the area, but that would be very, very, very telling. And then what the homicide investigators probably will be doing will be linking up with their gang squad colleagues and talking to their gang squad colleagues. and talking to their gang squad colleagues on the violent crime squads,

which is separate, a lot of times from homicide, and talking to each other and saying, hey, do you have any formants in the street who know there's ongoing beefs in that area over turf or whatever? And that also could lead you to both a motive and a suspect. Let me ask you this. Let's, again, at the time of this recording, we're not sure if anybody else was injured or shot,

but assuming nobody was and they're worth shots fired, and they're able to apprehend the person or persons, would they be charged with the murder of Brianna Long? Would they be charged with her manslaughter? Because it doesn't seem to me any of the evidence suggests that she was the target of this. But if bullets are fired and someone mistakenly gets shot, I don't even want to say accidentally because it's not like the gun went off. But if someone who you didn't intend to shoot ends up getting shot,

what could that person be charged with? Well, you know, we have felony murder charges and we have criminally negligent homicide type charges. that they can be charged with if you're engaging in criminal negligence or homicide simply means if you're engaging in activity that's so grossly negligent that you can foreseeably think that this behavior can lead to someone's death, then you can be charged with criminally negligent homicide. The other thing is felony murder, if you're engaged in committing a felony, say you're

shooting at somebody else and you hit a bystander, that's murder. You've murdered that person because you're engaged in a felony that leads to someone's, that can foreseeably lead to someone's murder. that could be felony murder, so you could certainly have murder charges in this case. Hey there, everybody. I want to talk to you right now about Palm, which is the next generation of pepper spray. You see, Palm's formula provides you with the necessary range and capacity that can give you and your loved ones some peace of mind.

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So in other words, if this was an assault, if someone was brandishing a weapon and firing at somebody, didn't shoot them, that could be, you know, an assault that ends in the death of someone that could be felony murder. That might be a way to get it, right? Absolutely, absolutely. Let me ask you this. The fact that law enforcement hasn't identified a suspect, let alone we haven't heard of any kind of arrests.

It's been a few days since this shooting. Does that surprise you? No, I think, like I said, initially the randomness of it is going to mean it's going to take a little time. It's going to take a lot of digging in, a lot of interviews. That analysis of the bullet trajectories that I talked about earlier takes time. You need experts to get on scene, and all of that work takes time, takes time to track people down. You know, in a case like this, if there is some kind of turf, where people may be not willing to talk.

And so the gang guys may have to go out and kind of massage their informants and work in their way into some information. And you do that in a number of ways. You know, you can do a street-level drug round up and see if anybody talks about it then. There are some ways you can do other investigations that can lead you to witnesses on this. investigation. I guess I'm wondering if anybody's being quiet because they say anybody with information is asked to call the GBI office at 229, 225, 4090. They're also encouraged to call the local police department at 229, 247, 2320, encouraging anybody if you have information about this. But it seems that if there was a group of people there and someone witnessed what happened, if they

haven't automatically come to the police and said this, does that feel like someone's hiding something? somebody's afraid to come forward. Well, yes, very well could be. Not only just hiding something, but a fear, it would be fearful. If, you know, if as, you know, one of the many theories out there is that this is a turf war, there was violence in that area, you know, urging bars to close, it could be that people are somewhat reticent to come in and come forward.

Again, that takes time. People, those detectives need to be out there, work in their informants, work in their neighborhoods, and kind of give the neighborhood the comfort level of coming forward. because sometimes people in violent areas are a little hesitant to come forward. So you need to kind of develop that relationship with the community that they feel more comfortable. And sometimes it does take a day or two or three, a little time. You know, that's another thing, putting this story out, they're showing her face. And some people kind of can make that emotional connection.

And then they decide to make that phone call. But, you know, sometimes people don't call right away. And sometimes it takes a little while. Yeah, you know, I think the concern is obviously people, whoever did this, it should be brought to justice. And I think there's a concern that if you have someone who's armed and potentially dangerous, the fact that they haven't been apprehended is obviously a concern. I kind of want to leave the conversation with these statements. So from the Valdosa State Football, they tweeted, quote, we would like to send our condolences to Breonna Long's family and friends

during this time. She made an incredible impact on our school and football program, forever in our hearts. Rihanna's father said that the family is in disbelief, but wants everybody to know how incredible Brianna was. Rihanna's aunt said, quote, I have no doubt where Brianna is right now, and she's dancing freely with the Lord. Until I see you again, Brie, Brie, I love you. Really heartbreaking stuff. Bobby Chaconne, thanks so much for taking the time and talking a little bit about what might be

happening behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Thanks for having me, Jesse. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on. Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.