{"id":233924,"date":"2026-04-16T07:40:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233924\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T07:40:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:40:26","slug":"it-hit-my-heart-real-bad-brunswick-restaurant-owner-reflects-after-deadly-shooting-outside-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233924\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It hit my heart real bad:’ Brunswick restaurant owner reflects after deadly shooting outside business"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 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\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

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.<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n


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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.<\/p>\n

He said the moment he learned what happened still weighs on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo while I was closing up, trying to get everyone out, someone called me saying somebody was shot in the parking lot,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt hit my heart real bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Morris said the shooting has brought pain on multiple sides for the victim\u2019s family and for him personally as a father.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo parents raise their kids to have them die before them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He wants to assure people that the area is safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want people to know the narrative, it\u2019s not a war zone,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an isolated incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family members of the victim later came to the scene, where they gathered in the parking lot and mourned.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brunswick restaurant owner is grappling with a tragic shooting outside his business that claimed a man’s life.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-233924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}