May 11
The police sirens outside had been going on for at least two hours without interruption. The Bradshaw home had become invaded by multiple members of the Cobb County police. Faces of the large crowd gathered around the entrance of the home had moved from a drunken confusion, to utter shock and disbelief. Just a few hours before the night had turned critical, the high school students had been invited to a night of celebration and excitement. Meadow View Prep had earned their very first soccer championship for the school, led by their captain Markus Bradshaw for a decisive victory.
Markus had been anticipating this victory for over three weeks. When his parents had told him, to his great disappointment, they would be absent abroad during the week of the game he had turned his frustrations and dissatisfaction into a plan to reap all the awards and attention that he felt a champion deserved. The text he had sent out days prior informing all seniors who could get at least one female to the party; that was turning easily into the senior party of the year, was required for entry unless they were themselves on the winning team of course.
The officers had been called for a volume disturbance one of the neighbors had made in the upscale community. They had stayed once they saw that there was presence of a great number of minors with an even larger amount of alcohol being consumed. Backup was called once a scream from the basement echoed through the silence of the large teenage population, along with a young woman screaming running from the sight of a puddle of blood spilling out of the bathroom located in the home’s basement. A barricade had been set up to ensure that none of the party goers left the premises.
None of the party goers really understood the gravity of this night or the domino effect that it would cascade their entire community and the world. That night, no one could have foreseen what was to happen in the little town of Smyrna, GA.