Fired Doraville officer’s records released, shed light on his background

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Atlanta News First obtained video of what a woman claims is doorbell camera video of now former Doraville Police Officer Miles Bryant showing up to her door uninvited and unannounced.

Personnel records Atlanta News First obtained Friday for the fired officer are giving more detail about how the department handled the situation.

Elasha Bates claims she submitted Ring camera video to the Gwinnett County Police Department and the Doraville Police Department in December as evidence after she told police that Bryant, who was a Doraville Police officer at the time, was stalking her at her Snellville-area apartment complex.

Bryant, 22, is charged with concealing the death of 16-year-old Susana Morales of Gwinnett County and was fired from the Doraville Police Department this week after Gwinnett police charged him.

His records show a work history in the Army National Guard, serving as a deputy at the Forsyth County Jail, and various security jobs.

Bates told Atlanta News First that she has known Miles Bryant since fifth grade, and she wishes the Doraville Police Department, and the Gwinnett Police Department took her reports of stalking more seriously last year.

In March, Bates claims shortly after she hung out with her old friend Bryant, he showed up at her apartment unannounced and uninvited.

“I get a phone call and he was asking If I was home, I said I was at work. I asked him what he wanted, and he said, ‘nothing, I was just checking on you.’ Then I came home at like 12, because I was a manager at Taco Bell, and my door was kicked in,” Bates said.

Bates said she thought it was someone else who previously was stalking her until she said her neighbor witnessed Bryant trying to break in.

“I never put two and two together until my neighbor ended up telling me that there was like a guy coming and putting his ear to my door and listening to see if I was home and stuff like that. She was alarmed when she saw him knocking and she said she saw him trying to break in,” Bates said.

Bates said Bryant showed up at her door again in October and two more times in December.

Bates said the Ring video showed Bryant stopping by in December while she was hiding inside her apartment with her boyfriend.

“I was home, I was at the door with my gun, my boyfriend had his gun, and we were waiting for him to come through the door because I knew he was a police officer,” Bates said.

Bates reported it to Gwinnett Police and Doraville Police in December of last year.

Personnel records released Friday show supervisors within the Doraville Police Department addressed the complaint from Bates and that Bryant “stated that he was only checking on her and did not mean her any harm...and he said that he would not contact her anymore.”

Bates filed a report in December for suspicious activity with Gwinnett Police, but it was never assigned to a detective.

“It went up to investigations and then at some point, we’re still trying to investigate exactly what happened, but it did not get assigned to a detective at that point, so there was not any immediate follow-up on the incident, but it has been assigned now and detectives are looking into it, and we do anticipate some further charges coming from this,” said Gwinnett County Police Sgt. Jennifer Richter.

“Sometimes things fall through the cracks,” Richter said. “Obviously that’s not what we want to have happen with situations like this. We want to take a look at it and see what’s going on.”

Richter said it’s now assigned to the same detective working the Morales case.

“We’re going to look and see if we need to implement any new processes that might help prevent something like this from happening in the future,” said Richter.

Reports show Bryant remained on duty until he was recently charged in connection to the disappearance of another young woman.

“I couldn’t believe that I have known him since fifth grade, you’ve been to my place, we’ve been to the movies with his girlfriend all of that like we grew up together. I couldn’t believe that I would have been his next target,” Bates said.

Below is the full statement from the Doraville Police Department released earlier in the week.

“In December last year, a woman came to the Doraville PD with a complaint against Mr. Bryant. Our officers talked with her about her concerns and started an administrative investigation. Our command team addressed the complaint with Mr. Bryant and the behavior stopped.”

“When the complainant spoke with our officers, they let her know that any criminal charges would have to be pursued by Gwinnett County. It was the department’s understanding that she filed a police report with the county. But the city’s department was not informed of any further action from Gwinnett,” —Doraville Police Department.

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