The sister of a repo man killed in a fatal shooting last May says she wants answers. Bryan Biggs, accompanied by four other people, was attempting to repo a 2004 truck from Michael Justice, 47, of Garrison. The five were at Justice’s home just after midnight on May 13.
Justice opened fire and Biggs, 37, of West Portsmouth, died at the scene. The other four were wounded but survived. Justice was arrested and charged with murder. However, the Lewis County Grand Jury declined to return an indictment and he was released from jail in June.
Bigg’s sister, Angel Journey, says she thinks there’s more to the story. Journey said everyone in the vehicle with her brother was armed. According to Journey, officials said he could’ve been shot in the crossfire. The grieving woman says she’s tired of waiting. “I just want justice for my brother. I’ve went down and I’ve talked to the sheriff and the chaplain. I tried to make a phone call to the investigator on the case. I’ve not heard anything. We’ve been told different things. I don’t know where to turn to.”
Journey said investigators told her that it all comes down to ballistics. “They told us it could take up to a year for the ballistics. Things don’t add up with the stories they told.”
Shot 23 Times
One glance at the autopsy report shows why figuring out just what happened is difficult. Biggs was shot 23 times. The bullets and fragments tore threw his heart, lungs, liver, ribs, trachea, and spine. In fact, there were no many wounds that the medical examiner was unable to tell whether they were entry or exit wounds and what direction they came from. Biggs’ body was riddled with bullets and fragments, so it was difficult to even tell how many bullets actually struck him. There were no powder burns, so it appears that none of the shots happened at close range.”
There are reports that Justice fired shots at Biggs during an earlier repossession attempt and that Biggs had declared on social media that he was headed back to Justice’s place with a gun. Toxicology reports showed that Biggs was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Story Doesn’t Add Up
For Journey, the story doesn’t add up. “You’ve got five people in a van that went over for this repo. And only one person is going to get shot 23 times?”
Long waits for results from state agencies are not uncommon. When Kevin Bailey died in June as a result of injuries sustained at the Scioto County Jail, it took nearly five months for Ohio to finally rule the cause of death as a homicide.
Scioto County Daily News reached out to both the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the Lewis County Commonwealth Attorney for a comment as to where the investigation stands. So far, we’ve not received a response.
