The Tony-nominated actor, 70, was found by police with multiple gunshot wounds early Saturday morning.
Thomas Jefferson Byrd, a film, television and stage actor who was a favorite of the director Spike Lee and received a Tony Award nomination for his one Broadway appearance, in a 2003 production of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” was killed early Saturday in a shooting in Atlanta. He was 70.
Anthony Grant, a spokesman for the Atlanta police, said on Sunday that Mr. Byrd was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds to the back after the police responded to a call about 1:45 a.m. on Saturday.
Craig Wyckoff, a friend and former representative of Mr. Byrd’s said,
He had spoken with a “circle of friends,” who told him that Mr. Byrd had gotten into an argument with someone at a store and that “that person must have followed him home.”
The police said the case was under investigation and declined to confirm that account.
In a series of posts to Instagram, Mr. Lee called Mr. Byrd “our beloved brother” and highlighted his roles in his movies. Mr. Byrd was in Mr. Lee’s “Clockers” (1995), “Girl 6” (1996), “Get on the Bus” (1996), “He Got Game” (1998), “Bamboozled” (2000), “Red Hook Summer” (2012), “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” (2014) and “Chi-Raq” (2015).
He also had a regular role in Mr. Lee’s recent TV series, “She’s Gotta Have It,” based on his 1986 film of the same name.
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