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Michael D. Bardlett

Age 17

Jonesboro, Georgia

To know Michael. To love Michael.

The space he left is bigger than he was. “My children are having the hardest time adjusting,” his mother, Cazandra Brown, said by phone, “especially my 1-year-old, who spent a lot of time with him.”  

“He was my everything,” she added. A rapper, singer and dancer “raised in church," he  “loved everybody he dealt with; didn’t meet any strangers. To know Michael was to love Michael.”

Michael D. Bardlett, 17, was fatally shot on Jan. 17, 2019 after “a verbal altercation” in Jonesboro, Georgia. “I really don’t think my child thought that he had enemies out there,” Brown said. “I really don’t.”

By Ariana Abtahi · Age 17 and Joe Meyerson · Age 17
Meet the Reporters

More than 80 musicians

James Claggion IV

Left hometown for fame in Atlanta

Vicente Valero III

He was a modern Renaissance man

Trevon Fareed Richardson

College, football, a scholarship. All lost.

Darion Gordon

Sixteen years erased by one bullet

Carnandez A. Davis

New family never to be whole

Kaileigh Lin Collier

Was “more beautiful than she knew”

Montrell Anthony Mouzon

His dream of witnessing motocross shattered

Taveon Donte' Brooks

Basketball point guard, would-be rapper

Zachary Mulford

Summer job turns into winter grief

Arthur Roger Holloway III

His obituary ran in two states

Ramon Enriquez Barragan

Born, raised, died in Garden City

Elijah Foster

Dope Boy Gang. One less member.

Raydale Hill

Can no longer create his music

Bryan Portales Escalante

Phone, wallet, shoes and, life — gone

Robert Spencer Biggers Jr.

Local rapper who loved his familyi

Beverly McBride

Purple hair, just like her dad

Ke’Andre Johnson

Cut off after only one verse

Taylor Hayes

A star on her karaoke machine

Brandon Nash Hammett

‘The music master’ killed before college

Ricky Ryon Willis III

YouTuber was destined for great things