Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
3
Fight Ends in Death
It was a fight over a video game system - a fight that left a man dead and both families devastated.
VALENCIA GRAY, VICTIM'S OLDER SISTER:
"Is he OK? He said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' but he was beating the ground. His hand was beating on the ground, and then I said, 'Keep talking, keep talking. Don't go to sleep.' And for a while, he didn't say anything, and we rolled him over and his eyes went straight back. And that was it."
Valencia Gray and her sister, Erica Little, remember the last moments with their brother, Antonio. They call him Tony.
ERICA LITTLE, VICTIM'S YOUNGER SISTER:
"He was just...he was a good person, and he didn't deserve to die."
Police say Tony got into a fight with 17-
year old Dontavias Bunkley over a video game system. The two fought inside a house and when it spilled o
utside, Bunkley shot Gray.
NICHOLE HOWARD, SUSPECT'S AUNT:
"He was scared. Hhe said he didn't mean to do it. He just wanted to scare him because they were all jumping on him."
Bunkley's aunt, Nichole Howard, is standing by her nephew but admits she's scared.
NICHOLE HOWARD, SUSPECT'S AUNT:
"We love him, and it's just a bad situation right now, a bad time for us, not only for our family but his also."
VALENCIA GRAY, VICTIM'S OLDER SISTER:
"He always entertained people with jokes and laughs. You could be having a bad day, and he was gonna come and say something that was going to put a smile on your face."
The Gray family says they're still making funeral arrangements for Tony at this point.
Dontavias Bunkley is charged with murder.
Chief Bob Bacle says he's also following
a l
ead on a second suspect who may have given Bunkley the gun to shoot Gray.
He says the last murder in Reynolds happened nearly 10 years ago. That murder was the result of a fight over
a cassette tape.
**Dey mo!**
Video game fight ends in slaying
REYNOLDS - An argument over a PlayStation led to the first murder in Reynolds in about 10 years, police say.
Erica Little said it was shocking to learn that the brother who defused arguments between her and their mother by making jokes was apparently shot after a fight about a video game system.
"He died for a PlayStation, basically," she said.
Her brother, Antonio Gray, 27, was shot once in the lower back about 6 p.m. Wednesday and died at Peach County Hospital not long after, said Reynolds Police Chief Bob Bacle.
Dontavais Bunkley,</
b> 17, w
as charged early Thursday morning in the shooting, Bacle said.
Reynolds, population 1,200, is located in southeast Taylor County.
The two men got into an argument over whether Bunkley had burglarized Gray's home and stolen his PlayStation 2 Tuesday nig
ht, Bacle said. After a fight, Bunkley shot Gray in the back, he said.
"You don't know what to think," Bacle said "This younger generation doesn't have a concept of life and death. When they pull out a gun and shoot, they don't think about the consequences."
He said it hasn't been determined whether Bunkley did steal Gray's PlayStation. The GBI is assisting in the investigation.
Gray was shot in front of a house on Foncarson Alley, but they are investigating which of the two had a friend who lived there, Bacle said. Witnesses are being uncooperative, Bacle said.
Bacle said it's not clear whether the two were friends, since nearly everyone in Reynolds know
s each other
.
"It's hard to tell who's friends with who," he said.
And with this being the first murder charge in about 10 years in Reynolds, it's caused a lot of concern.
"Anytime there's a shooting death in a small town, it gets everyone concerned about what's going on in the town," Bacle said.
Reynolds is a town
of one-story buildings, with a downtown no larger than a block. Its city hall and police department are in the same one-story storefront.
Gray's family gathered at Gray's sister's home Thursday.
Little, 21, said Gray was a kind and funny man, and he bought clothes for her in high school when her family had little money. He worked as a truck driver until he quit his job a few months ago, she said.
He collected everything that had to do with the Atlanta Braves, did impressions of Michael Jackson and liked to draw portraits with a pencil, she said.
He was a 1995 graduate of Taylor County Hig
h School, she sa
id.
Dorothy Williams, 81, lived next door to the house where Gray was shot. She said Gray would help her when he saw her doing a chore, like raking leaves or carrying groceries.
"He'd do it for me and I'd offer to pay him, but he wouldn't take a dime, she said.
Bunkley's grandmother, Helen Harp, 61, said he too is a good person.
"He was a real nice young man to me. Of c
ourse, I'm his grandma. All kids have their faults."
When she drove her grandson to turn himself in early Thursday morning, he told her that he was attacked by Gray, she said.
She said her grandson stayed with her occasionally and was going to trade school after leaving high school in Warner Robins.
He didn't have a permanent place to stay, and he stayed with a number of people, she said.
She said she was shocked, "because who would think a 17-year-old child would kill somebody?"
*****
*********
Where has this grandmammy been in the last 20 years?
Wake up negroes and smell the negro!
T.N.B.
Fight Ends in Death
It was a fight over a video game system - a fight that left a man dead and both families devastated.
VALENCIA GRAY, VICTIM'S OLDER SISTER:
"Is he OK? He said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' but he was beating the ground. His hand was beating on the ground, and then I said, 'Keep talking, keep talking. Don't go to sleep.' And for a while, he didn't say anything, and we rolled him over and his eyes went straight back. And that was it."
Valencia Gray and her sister, Erica Little, remember the last moments with their brother, Antonio. They call him Tony.
ERICA LITTLE, VICTIM'S YOUNGER SISTER:
"He was just...he was a good person, and he didn't deserve to die."
Police say Tony got into a fight with 17-
year old Dontavias Bunkley over a video game system. The two fought inside a house and when it spilled o
utside, Bunkley shot Gray.
NICHOLE HOWARD, SUSPECT'S AUNT:
"He was scared. Hhe said he didn't mean to do it. He just wanted to scare him because they were all jumping on him."
Bunkley's aunt, Nichole Howard, is standing by her nephew but admits she's scared.
NICHOLE HOWARD, SUSPECT'S AUNT:
"We love him, and it's just a bad situation right now, a bad time for us, not only for our family but his also."
VALENCIA GRAY, VICTIM'S OLDER SISTER:
"He always entertained people with jokes and laughs. You could be having a bad day, and he was gonna come and say something that was going to put a smile on your face."
The Gray family says they're still making funeral arrangements for Tony at this point.
Dontavias Bunkley is charged with murder.
Chief Bob Bacle says he's also following
a l
ead on a second suspect who may have given Bunkley the gun to shoot Gray.
He says the last murder in Reynolds happened nearly 10 years ago. That murder was the result of a fight over
a cassette tape.
**Dey mo!**
Video game fight ends in slaying
REYNOLDS - An argument over a PlayStation led to the first murder in Reynolds in about 10 years, police say.
Erica Little said it was shocking to learn that the brother who defused arguments between her and their mother by making jokes was apparently shot after a fight about a video game system.
"He died for a PlayStation, basically," she said.
Her brother, Antonio Gray, 27, was shot once in the lower back about 6 p.m. Wednesday and died at Peach County Hospital not long after, said Reynolds Police Chief Bob Bacle.
Dontavais Bunkley,</
b> 17, w
as charged early Thursday morning in the shooting, Bacle said.
Reynolds, population 1,200, is located in southeast Taylor County.
The two men got into an argument over whether Bunkley had burglarized Gray's home and stolen his PlayStation 2 Tuesday nig
ht, Bacle said. After a fight, Bunkley shot Gray in the back, he said.
"You don't know what to think," Bacle said "This younger generation doesn't have a concept of life and death. When they pull out a gun and shoot, they don't think about the consequences."
He said it hasn't been determined whether Bunkley did steal Gray's PlayStation. The GBI is assisting in the investigation.
Gray was shot in front of a house on Foncarson Alley, but they are investigating which of the two had a friend who lived there, Bacle said. Witnesses are being uncooperative, Bacle said.
Bacle said it's not clear whether the two were friends, since nearly everyone in Reynolds know
s each other
.
"It's hard to tell who's friends with who," he said.
And with this being the first murder charge in about 10 years in Reynolds, it's caused a lot of concern.
"Anytime there's a shooting death in a small town, it gets everyone concerned about what's going on in the town," Bacle said.
Reynolds is a town
of one-story buildings, with a downtown no larger than a block. Its city hall and police department are in the same one-story storefront.
Gray's family gathered at Gray's sister's home Thursday.
Little, 21, said Gray was a kind and funny man, and he bought clothes for her in high school when her family had little money. He worked as a truck driver until he quit his job a few months ago, she said.
He collected everything that had to do with the Atlanta Braves, did impressions of Michael Jackson and liked to draw portraits with a pencil, she said.
He was a 1995 graduate of Taylor County Hig
h School, she sa
id.
Dorothy Williams, 81, lived next door to the house where Gray was shot. She said Gray would help her when he saw her doing a chore, like raking leaves or carrying groceries.
"He'd do it for me and I'd offer to pay him, but he wouldn't take a dime, she said.
Bunkley's grandmother, Helen Harp, 61, said he too is a good person.
"He was a real nice young man to me. Of c
ourse, I'm his grandma. All kids have their faults."
When she drove her grandson to turn himself in early Thursday morning, he told her that he was attacked by Gray, she said.
She said her grandson stayed with her occasionally and was going to trade school after leaving high school in Warner Robins.
He didn't have a permanent place to stay, and he stayed with a number of people, she said.
She said she was shocked, "because who would think a 17-year-old child would kill somebody?"
*****
*********
Where has this grandmammy been in the last 20 years?
Wake up negroes and smell the negro!
T.N.B.
