A Brunswick restaurant owner is grappling with a tragic shooting outside his business that claimed a man’s life. Police are investigating, with a suspect in custody.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Brunswick restaurant owner is sharing his perspective after a deadly shooting happened outside his business early Sunday morning, an incident he says has deeply affected him and the victim’s family.

Police are still investigating after a man was shot and killed around 2 a.m. in the parking lot of The Jerk Shack on Altama Avenue. Officers said they were already in the area helping clear the parking lot after closing when they heard gunfire and found a man who had been shot. He died at the scene. Authorities said a suspect is in custody.



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While investigators work to piece together what led up to the shooting, restaurant owner George Morris said the victim, who police identified late Monday as 23-year-old Bryan Espinoza, had been inside the restaurant earlier in the night, spent time there, and left around closing. He adds that the suspected shooter never entered the business.

He said the moment he learned what happened still weighs on him.

“So while I was closing up, trying to get everyone out, someone called me saying somebody was shot in the parking lot,” Morris said. “It hit my heart real bad.”

The Jerk Shack has been open in Brunswick for about five years, serving Jamaican food and building what Morris describes as a regular, close-knit customer base. He said the night itself inside the restaurant had felt routine, until it wasn’t.

Morris said the shooting has brought pain on multiple sides for the victim’s family and for him personally as a father.

“No parents raise their kids to have them die before them,” he said.

He wants to assure people that the area is safe. 

“I just want people to know the narrative, it’s not a war zone,” he said. “It’s an isolated incident.”

Family members of the victim later came to the scene, where they gathered in the parking lot and mourned.

Police identified the suspect late Monday as 29-year-old Gary Abray. He’s currently in the Glynn County Jail on charges of murder, possession of a firearm during commission of a crime, and discharging a gun near a public highway.