A Bainbridge man died in a homicide from a gunshot wound early Wednesday morning.

At 2:48 a.m. on April 8, E-911 received a call from Teresa Brown saying that her boyfriend, 29-year-old James Curtis Christian Jr., was unresponsive.

Dispatchers began talking the woman through CPR when she informed them there was also blood. Sheriff’s deputies and EMS were dispatched to the scene.

According to Decatur County Sheriff’s Major Wendell Cofer, Brown said shortly before 3 a.m., Christian came into her bedroom at their home, located at 137 Bruce Road, and said, “Somebody shot me.”

He then walked out of the home and began walking toward his mother’s residence, which is 20 to 30 yards away.

Christian apparently collapsed half way to the home, where he was found by Brown.

Christian suffered a gunshot wound to the left shoulder region and was pronounced dead upon arrival at Memorial Hospital and Manor in Bainbridge, said Cofer.

“We are investigating the shooting as a homicide,” said Sheriff Wiley Griffin on Friday.

He said the majority of the Sheriff’s Office investigators as well as officers from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) are working on the case. GBI Crime Scene Technician Wes Horne along with Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigator Capt. Gale Bowyer have been collecting evidence potentially connected with the case, said Griffin.

Bowyer also traveled to the GBI Crime Lab in Atlanta, Ga., to be present at the autopsy performed on Christian.

Christian was incarcerated for possession of cocaine in Decatur County in 2004. He served a little more than three months of a three-year sentence at Hays Inmate Boot Camp located in Trion, Ga.

A reward will be offered for information leading to arrest and conviction in the homicide investigation, according to Griffin.

If you have any information regarding the shooting, please contact Investigator Wendell Cofer with the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office at (229) 248-2044.