Police: Woman used man's gun to shoot teen, both behind bars
Apr. 20—It was Michael Howard's handgun, police allege, but it was Bria-Marie Nicole Register who pulled the trigger, according to arrest warrants filed Sunday in Glynn County Magistrate Court.
Howard, 42, and Register, 28, both stand charged in the early Saturday morning shooting death of 17-year-old Javier Cordova.
The two were arrested and booked into the Glynn County Detention Center around 6 a.m. Sunday following a weekend-long joint investigation by Glynn County Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Both are charged with felony murder.
Police were responding at 2:15 a.m. to reports of shots fired in the area when they found Cordova lying beside the roadway at Cypress Mill Road and Golden Isles Boulevard.
Cordova was unresponsive and initially appeared to have a head laceration. Police then discovered he had suffered a gunshot wound to the upper torso.
A county ambulance transferred Cordova to Southeast Georgia Health System's Brunswick hospital, where lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful.
Police said the fatal shooting occurred after an argument broke out at a late night cookout at the nearby Coastal Suites Apartments, 3108 Cypress Mill Road.
According to the warrants filed in Magistrate Court, the Glock handgun belonged to Howard. However, police allege Register was carrying the gun when the fight broke out.
Police allege Howard pushed the teenager to the ground just before Register approached him with the gun.
Police accuse Register of shooting Cordova in the chest "while in the commission of striking Cordova upon the head and face with the same firearm," the warrant states.
Police allege Howard then attempted to hide the handgun.
Police said he confessed to tossing the "lower receiver of the gun into the marsh area," the warrant said.
Police allege Howard further sought to hide the remainder of the gun inside a shower drain at his residence.
Howard and Register remained in the county jail Monday.
