Wednesday 8 January 2014

Woman found dead in shooting at Sanford insurance offices



According to her friends, Cynthia McGee Bryant was a religious woman who owned her own insurance agency, worked hard and didn't have enemies.

But on Monday, someone shot McGee Bryant, 53, to death inside her office at 400 W. 25th St., police said.

Few details were released by the investigators however they did not mention if the motive was robbery.

Officers received a 911 call about 12:15 p.m. and found Bryant's body a couple of minutes later at McGee Insurance and Financial Services, Police Department spokeswoman Shannon Cordingly said.

Detectives were hesitant in revealing where in the office Bryant's body was found or what part of the body she was shot in and whether anyone witnessed the crime.  They would not even say who was responsible in calling 911.

McGee Bryant's former husband, Reginald Bryant, said his ex-wife was focused on her job and on evangelical work.  She was a longtime member of Livingston Street Church of God in Orlando.

"She was a God-fearing woman," Bryant said.

McGee Bryant, who lived near Lake Mary, was from a small town in Georgia and also lived in upstate New York before moving to Central Florida to be near extended family, her ex-husband said.

She was named Allstate agent of the year in her territory in 2005 and started her own Allstate agency in Sanford in 2007, according to her website.

She started her current business in 2009.  Her business is selling personal and business insurance.  Her motto was "Integrity. Commitment.  Dedication.  Loyalty.  Respect.  Responsive."

Bishop Antonio Richardson, whom Bryant recruited a few months ago to be spiritual leader at Livingston Street Church of God, described McGee Bryant as "a very soft-spoken, giving person" who sometimes paid clients' premiums when they could not afford to, ministered to the homeless and handed out money on the street if she saw a needy person.

She as well was a licensed minister who was about to become outreach director for her congregation.

"It's a shock," Richardson said.

McGee Bryant's former mother-in-law, Edith Passmore Bryant, said she knew of no one who would want to harm her.

"I never heard her speak negatively about anyone," Passmore Bryant said. "She believed in helping people wherever she could."

Reginald Bryant said his ex-wife owned a Hummer and a Cadillac CTS and while Seminole County Sheriff's Office and Sanford police vehicles were outside the insurance office several hours after the killing, and a black Hummer H3 was towed.

The couple were married briefly in the mid-1990s and remained on good terms, he said. They had no children.


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