On the evening of August 18, 1989, Davis briefly attended a pool
party hosted by a friend. As he left with his friend Darrell Collins,
the occupants of a passing car yelled obscenities at them.
Michael Cooper, a passenger in the other car, was shot in the face, allegedly by Davis.
Davis
and Collins continued on, and later met Sylvester "Redd" Coles, who was
arguing with a homeless man, Larry Young, over a beer. Off-duty
policeman Mark MacPhail was working as a security guard at a Burger King
restaurant in Savannah, Georgia.
MacPhail, age 27, the son of a U.S. Army colonel, was
married with a 2-year old daughter and an infant son. He
had joined the Savannah Police Department in 1986 following six years
of military service as an army ranger. MacPhail had worked for three
years as a regular patrol officer and in the summer of 1989 had applied
to train as a mounted policeman.
At about 1:15 am,
seeking to help Young who was being attacked in a nearby parking lot,
MacPhail was killed. He had been shot twice, once through the heart and
once in the face, without drawing his gun.
No physical
evidence from the crime was retrieved, apart from the bullets and shell
casings, which were determined to have come from a .38-caliber pistol.
Witnesses to the shooting agreed that a man in a white shirt had struck
Young and then shot MacPhail.
On
the evening of August 19, Redd Coles went to the police. He told them
that he had seen Davis with a .38-caliber gun, and that Davis had
assaulted Young.
The same evening, Davis drove to
Atlanta with his sister. In the early morning of August 20, 1989, the
Savannah police, suspecting Davis and seeking a murder weapon, converged
on the Davis home. Having sealed off the area, the police searched the
house, and a pair of shorts belonging to Davis were found in a dryer and
confiscated.
Police issued a reward for information
leading to Davis' arrest. Davis' family began negotiating with police,
motivated by concerns about his safety; local drug dealers were making
death threats because the police dragnet seeking Davis had interrupted
their business.
On August 23, 1989, Davis was driven
back to Savannah by members of his family, where he surrendered to
police, and he was charged with MacPhail's murder. Hundreds of
mourners, including county, state and federal law enforcement officials,
had attended MacPhail's funeral at Trinity Lutheran Church in Savannah
the day before.