SOUTH DAYTONA, Florida — Police in this Volusia County city have charged a 31-year-old man with murder, but two days after the killing they have still told the public almost nothing about who died or why. Justin W. Bryan has been charged with second-degree murder with a firearm, according to a South Daytona Police Department press release and court records reported by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Bryan was being held without bond on Thursday, October 29, at the Volusia County Branch Jail.
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal
What police have said is short and specific: the homicide took place around 5:20 a.m. on Wednesday, October 28, at 2050 S. Ridgewood Ave. in South Daytona, and a suspect was taken into custody as the investigation began — WESH 2 News reported the homicide investigation and the custody on October 28. Ridgewood Avenue is the U.S. 1 corridor that runs the length of South Daytona, lined with businesses, motels and apartment buildings.
Source: WESH 2 News
As of the News-Journal's October 29 report, police had not released the victim's name, the victim's age, any relationship between the victim and Bryan, a motive, or any description of the events inside 2050 S. Ridgewood Ave. before the killing. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call South Daytona police at 386-322-3030.
Arrested during Biketoberfest, eleven days before the killing
Court records reviewed by the News-Journal show Bryan's most recent earlier arrest came during Biketoberfest, the annual fall motorcycle rally that fills the Daytona Beach area each October. Around 11:30 p.m. on October 17, a Volusia Sheriff's Office deputy was flagged down over a disturbance inside the Iron Horse Saloon in Ormond Beach, according to the charging affidavit in that case. A security employee pointed to Bryan as one of the people involved in the disturbance.
Deputies ordered Bryan to stop three times, but he ignored them, the affidavit states. A deputy then grabbed Bryan by the back of the shirt to stop him, but Bryan pulled away and told the deputy not to grab him, according to the affidavit. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence. Bryan was scheduled to appear in court on November 10 for his arraignment in that case — a date now overtaken by the murder charge. The Biketoberfest allegations are accusations from a charging affidavit, not findings of a court.
A February 2025 arrest in which prosecutors declined to file charges
Daytona Beach Police had arrested Bryan once before, on February 16, 2025, after a confrontation outside Grandview Live at 640 Grandview Ave. in Daytona Beach, according to a charging affidavit reported by the News-Journal. Bryan wanted a man to pay the tow fee for his car being towed from a tow-away zone; the man told police Bryan said he had recommended that he park there, so he should pay the fee, but the man refused. Bryan pushed the man during the confrontation, police said, and when the man began calling 911, Bryan was accused of snatching the cellphone from his hand and throwing it to the ground, breaking the $1,000 phone.
According to the affidavit, Bryan admitted to grabbing the phone and throwing it to the ground because the man had not paid for his truck, and then declined to speak further. The State Attorney's Office later declined to file charges of robbery by sudden snatching, battery, obstructing justice and damage to property against Bryan in that case. A decision not to file charges is not a conviction and not an acquittal after trial — it means prosecutors chose not to pursue that case.
What second-degree murder means in Florida, and what happens next
Under Florida law, second-degree murder is a killing committed by an act imminently dangerous to another and showing a depraved mind, without the premeditation the state must prove for first-degree murder. It is among the most serious charges in the state's criminal code and carries a possible sentence of up to life in prison on conviction. The addition of 'with a firearm' in Bryan's charge reflects the police allegation that a gun was used. None of this has been tested in court: the charge rests on the police investigation, and Bryan is presumed innocent unless the state proves the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
For now, the case sits at its earliest stage. Bryan remains in the Volusia County Branch Jail without bond, the victim has still not been publicly identified in the reporting, and South Daytona police have asked anyone with information to call 386-322-3030. The next public steps will be the state's formal filing decisions and Bryan's first court appearances in Volusia County — and, for the victim's family and neighbours on Ridgewood Avenue, the still-unanswered question of what happened in the early hours of October 28.