Gwinnett County police have upgraded charges against a Doraville officer arrested in the death of 16-year-old Susana Morales to felony murder and kidnapping.

Morales vanished in July of 2022. Her skeletal remains were found 20 miles from her home on the Gwinnett County/Barrow County line earlier this month.

Police initially charged Miles Bryant, the former Doraville police officer, with concealing Morales’ death and falsely reporting a crime.

On Wednesday, Gwinnett police announced that charges were upgraded and that a gun registered to Bryant was found near Morales’ remains.

Channel 2′s Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson has been following the investigation into Morales’ death and Bryant’s arrest. Last Friday, Johnson obtained Bryant’s personnel file.

The 214-page report shows that Bryant passed an extensive background check before he was hired by Doraville police department in May 2021.

In Nov. 2021, another officer reported that while he was on duty and Bryant was off-duty and in street clothes, Bryant “pressed out his hands as if he was holding a handgun pointing it at me.”

The officer wrote, “I began to reach for my pistol with my right hand,” before he recognized it was Bryant. He said Bryant told him to “keep your head on a swivel,” which landed him a two-day suspension.

On July 26, 2022, Morales’ family reported her missing. Records show that months after Morales disappeared, Bryant responded to a runaway call of another child on Oct. 2, but waited three days to finish the report, while federal law requires it to be done within two hours.

For those three days, there was no record of that child being reported missing. Bryant was written up.

Johnson also spoke with a woman who reported Bryant for allegedly stalking her for nearly a year.

Elasha Bates said that Bryant’s behavior was so bizarre it made her afraid for her life. It scared her so much she eventually reported it to Doraville police.

Bates said Bryant was a childhood friend. She knew Bryant was a Doraville police officer and that he’d served in the military. She said she was afraid for her life.

“I just bought cameras, got me a gun and made sure I kept it loaded,” Bates said.

A police report from Dec. 11 lists Bryant ats the suspect for a suspicious activity incident. Gwinnett County police said the case was never assigned to a detective and now they’re reopening the case in light of Morales’ death.

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