GBI Investigating After Brantley County Man Shot at Two GBI Agents

Hortense, GA (November 4, 2025) – GBI Agents are investigating after Warren Edmond Leaon West, age 49, of Hortense, GA, shot at two GBI Special Agents following an interview at a home on Drury Court in Hortense, Brantley County, Georgia. No agents were injured in the incident.

Preliminary information indicates that on Friday, October 31, 2025, at about 11:45 a.m., GBI Agents from the GBI’s Regional Investigative Office in Kingsland, GA, were at a home on Drury Court in Hortense, Georgia, interviewing West in connection with an ongoing child molestation investigation. As the interview ended, West ran from the agents and shot at them twice before running into the woods behind the home. Neither agent was injured during the shooting.

While GBI Agents and Brantley County Sheriff’s Office Deputies formed a perimeter around the property, they heard another gunshot that appeared to come from the woods behind the home. The Glynn County Sheriff’s Office, the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Georgia State Patrol responded to assist. After searching the home and property, West was located behind the woods, alive, but with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. West was life-flighted to Jacksonville, Florida, for advanced trauma care.

Charges are forthcoming.

This investigation is being conducted by the GBI’s Regional Investigative Office in Douglas, GA, and is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Brantley County Sheriff’s Office at (912) 462-6141 or the GBI’s Regional Investigative Office in Douglas, GA, at (912) 389-4103. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.

Once the investigation is complete, the case file will be given to the Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.