Suspect Surrenders After Slaying of Bystander

A San Diego man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of a bystander who was struck by a stray bullet fired by one of five men fighting outside a Marina Village restaurant early Wednesday morning.

David Matthew Tucker, 22, accompanied by his attorney, surrendered to police in connection with the shooting death of Charles A. Bryant, 31, of San Diego, according to San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson.

After being questioned by homicide detectives, Tucker was booked into County Jail downtown and held without bail, Robinson said.

Bryant was shot in the back shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday while he sat in his car, which was parked a short distance from where the men were fighting, Robinson said. Bryant had apparently ducked into his car when he heard gunfire, but he was struck by a stray bullet that entered the rear of the vehicle and went through the front seat.

Bryant told a woman with him in the car that he had been shot, and she drove him to Mission Bay Hospital, where he died at 4:15 a.m., Robinson said.

Police believe the chain of events that led to Bryant’s death began with a fight inside Paradise Bay Seafood Restaurant, in which Tucker and two companions seemed to be the aggressors, Robinson said. When the restaurant closed, the altercation spilled out into the parking lot, he said.

One of the men in Tucker’s group allegedly jumped in a brown Porsche and tried to run over one of the other men, Robinson said. The man evaded the vehicle by jumping on top of a parked car, prompting one of the assailants to get out of the Porsche and fire a large-caliber handgun at the man, Robinson said. After the shot struck Bryant’s car, the three men fled in the Porsche, he said.

Police did not know what or who started the fight that led to the fatal shooting, Robinson said. Homicide detectives questioned the two men who were with Tucker but did not arrest them.