On Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2022, a family dispute in Edinburgh, Indiana, ended with 49-year-old Wayne E. McGeorge Jr. suffering a single gunshot wound to his abdomen. Police were called to a Bluff Road residence shortly after 6 p.m.; emergency responders transported McGeorge to Columbus Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy confirmed the single gunshot as the cause of death and the death was ruled a homicide.

Investigators quickly focused on a family member. McGeorge’s 20-year-old stepson, Damion Bryant, was identified as the shooter and taken into custody. Court documents describe a preceding fight between McGeorge and Bryant’s mother. Bryant told investigators his younger siblings had alerted him to the altercation, that he believed McGeorge had been drinking, and that when McGeorge returned to the residence a confrontation occurred. Bryant said McGeorge pushed him and put his hands around his neck; Bryant said he pushed McGeorge away with the barrel of a rifle, the weapon discharged, and McGeorge was struck. Bryant said he called 911 and tried to apply pressure to the wound.

Initially charged with murder, Bryant later pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and was sentenced in May 2023 to six years in the Department of Correction, with an order to pay restitution for funeral expenses. Does anyone have additional information about the events on Bluff Road that evening or knew Wayne McGeorge?