Fairborn police: Sergeant returns fire after Columbus homicide suspect shoots at officers

“While officers were attempting to serve the arrest warrant the wanted subject was seen outside and upon seeing Fairborn officers, he fired several shots at the officers,” according to a release issued Thursday from the police department.

A Fairborn sergeant returned fire and Bryant surrendered a short time later and was taken into custody.

No one was struck by bullets and no injuries were reported.

Fairborn police, citing Marsy’s Law, are not naming the sergeant, described as a more than 10-year veteran of the department.

Sgt. Nathan Penrod, the department’s public information officer, said the sergeant is on paid administrative leave pending investigation.

Bryant was booked into the Greene County Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Fairborn Municipal Court for two counts of felonious assault after charges were filed against him Thursday, court records show.

The officer-involved incident remains under investigation by the Fairborn Detective Bureau and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

An arrest warrant on a murder charge was filed Wednesday against Bryant in Franklin County Municipal Court for the March 5, 2013, death of 22-year-old Daviena Clay in Columbus after a Fairborn detective reported that an officer interviewing Bryant’s wife in an unrelated crime said that “Breyon Bryant confessed to her that he killed Ms. Clay by strangling her,” according to an affidavit.

Bryant was 19 when he drove Clay to his mother’s house on Wildwood Avenue in Columbus, court records state.

“Breyon Bryant and Daivena Clay moved to a bedroom where he then strangled Daivena Clay until she stopped moving. He attempted to drag the body into the basement and was going to pour bleach over the body,” the affidavit stated.

Bryant’s mother then woke up and came out of her bedroom asking why the house smelled like bleach. Bryant started yelling at his mother, who ran out of the house to a neighbor’s and called 911. When officers responded they found Clay’s body, the document says.

Police on Dec. 13 collected a DNA sample from Bryant at his residence in Fairborn. After Columbus detectives left, Bryant reportedly confessed to his wife that he killed Clay, the affidavit stated.