Tavores Maurice Pearson, 44, was found with a gunshot wound on January 15, 2024, in the 3200 block of Houston Avenue in Macon, Georgia. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office answered a call at 9:25 p.m.; Pearson was taken to a nearby hospital but died of his injuries and was pronounced dead by the deputy coroner on January 16, 2024.

Born in Macon on September 23, 1979, Pearson—known to many as Maurice—graduated from Southwest High School in 1998, where he was an honor student and a member of Beta Club and Future Business Leaders of America. He played baseball, basketball and football and was a father to a daughter and three sons. He had been treated for Sarcoidosis since 2014, a condition that affected his ability to work.

Investigators later identified a suspect. On March 7, 2024, the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 49-year-old Derrick Jermaine Berry in Kennesaw; Berry, a Macon resident, was booked into the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center the next day and faces a murder charge in Pearson’s death. If anyone knew Tavores Pearson or has information about the shooting, please come forward.