Both of the men charged were already in police custody on unrelated matters. Police have named a pair of men as suspects in connection with the shooting death of Georgia college student Brianna Long. In October 2023, Long was working at a The Pier Bar in Remerton, Georgia when a shooting occurred near by. A stray bullet from the shooting reportedly hit and killed her. Another shot injured a coworker.
![[Hope Ritter, 29, was killed in early February while she was sitting in her car after leaving a work shift at Atomic Liquors in Las Vegas. Two men, Phillip Strong, 18, and Charles Wright, 20, have been arrested in connection with her killing]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/25/19/08/Screenshot-2025-02-25-at-2-44-11-PM.png)
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents and the Remerton police have been searching for the individuals responsible for Long's death for more than a year, and have now charged two suspects. GBI agents believe that a conflict between gangs may have played into Long's death. They think the suspects were in Remerton on the night Long was killed to find someone involved in a gang dispute.
Clayton has been arrested three times since the 2023 incident, and Green has been arrested twice. Additional charges may be brought against the suspects as the investigation continues. Once the investigation wraps, the case will be turned over to the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office.
The GBI has asked anyone with information relating to the incident to call their investigators. Long, 21, was a student at Valdosta State University, where she was studying to become a dental hygienist. "We are angry. She was our world. She was a cheerleader her whole little life, Miss Paulding County, honors student," Spinks told the broadcaster in 2023. "We just want to know why. We want to know why, and we want to make sure that this person is no longer out there, taking away another innocent life.".
Like Long, Ritter was also working as a bartender and was attending school. She was weeks away from earning a credential allowing her to work as a barber — and spend more time with her 10-year-old daughter — when she was shot outside her workplace, Atomic Liquors, in Las Vegas.
