On Sunday afternoon, May 6, 2018, 38-year-old Tavares Lester was found dead from a gunshot wound to his back in the driveway of the Econo Lodge on Riverside Drive in Macon, Georgia. Emergency personnel were called after reports of shots fired, but Lester had already died; the bullet entered the right side of his back and lodged in his heart. His death was recorded as the 15th homicide in Bibb County that year.

Investigators arrested 26-year-old Rashad Marquez Mays the next day and later charged 30-year-old Christopher Brandon Kirby as well. Security camera footage showed a confrontation that began inside a motel room and escalated in a breezeway; the video captured Lester appearing to leave when a single shot was fired from a second-floor balcony, over 100 feet away. Mays claimed self-defense, saying Lester had verbally threatened him, while witnesses and evidence were disputed over whether Lester had a weapon.

Kirby was accused of giving Mays a ride after the shooting and hiding the firearm at his mother’s house; police later found the gun stashed in a coffee can under a shed. In May 2021 a Bibb County Superior Court jury found Mays guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life without parole. Does anyone have observations about the motel security footage or the layout of the Econo Lodge property that could shed light on the shooting scene?