A North Carolina man has been arrested for the brutal murder of an off duty corrections officer from Atlantic Beach who bravely intervened in a woman’s beating at a Jacksonville gas station early Saturday morning.
Officer Brad McNew, a 24-year veteran of the department and beloved staple of his community, was leaving his shift after 1 a.m. Saturday morning when he saw a man brutalizing a woman at the gas station.
Surveillance video shows Demaurea Grant, 29, riding in the passenger seat as the woman pulls up next to a pump. He then gets out, places a gun on the hood, pulls the victim out of the car and throws her to the ground.
McNew, who tragically lost his 12-year-old daughter to COVID-19, spotted the exchange and stopped to intervene.
The convicted felon can be seen picking the gun up off the hood and pointing it in McNew’s direction before getting back in the car with the female.
Jacskonville County Sheriff T.K Waters said Grant fired at McNew while pulling out of the station and killed him.
The U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force quickly tracked Grant down to a home in Gastonia, North Carolina and placed him in custody.
Waters announced the rapid arrest during a Sunday press conference where he ripped Grant’s actions and praised McNew as a respected and valuable member of his agency who selflessly tried to help someone in need.
“This murder arrest is about our community standing in solidarity with those who make the decision to do the good and decent thing,” Waters said. “Today we collectively voice that won’t tolerate when a law criminal needlessly takes the life of a human being who is bravely defending a stranger in need and serving a member of this great community.”
The woman who was with Grant at the gas station was also arrested on an unrelated warrant at the Astonia home.
Heartbroken residents of Atlantic Beach remembered McNew at a candlelight vigil Saturday night, highlighting his tireless volunteer efforts on behalf of his community.
“I know he didn’t have any regrets when he helped that woman who was being abused,” his son Liam McNew said, according to First Coast News.
Rick Contreras said McNew volunteered alongside him with the Fletcher High School band, and could be counted on to clean up after events — and was always the last to leave, the station reported.
“I wanted the band family to understand that they meant something to Brad, and that Brad meant something to the band family,” said Contreras.
Grant, who has a length rap sheet, will be extradited to Jacksonville in the coming days.
Waters said investigators believe he was in Jacksonville to escape unspecified “issues” he was having there.
