First at five, May 12, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga.---A local symphony musician is dead, and deputies says it's because of a drug deal. Now deputies want to know who cut this young man's life short.

Deputies went door-to-door Monday morning, passing out fliers to find out who killed 26-year-old David Reader.

"He was quite accomplished and a very sweet person, good person," said Augusta Symphony Executive Director Sandra Self.

Reader was the lead cellist in the Augusta Symphony. He played the cello and the piano since he was little.

Self says Reader was a great addition to the orchestra.

"He had such a fresh look at what music is and what it can be," she said.

But his music, his career, and his life, were all cut short at a crime scene late Saturday night.

"I ran to him to see what was wrong with him and he had blood on him," said Lorretta Broomer Harris, who was there the night of his death.

She says she saw Reader's car swerve in her neighborhood, East Augusta Commons. She tried to help, but it was too late.

"I just dropped my head and walked away because I know tears were coming later. We couldn't hardly sleep the rest of the night," Harris said.

Deputies believe Reader was there to buy drugs after a concert, which is shocking news to his employer.

"Nothing that I had seen made me really think at all in any way that...he had a problem," Self said.

Either way, she says it's a tragedy because he was just starting his professional career.

"He was just coming into his own," she said. "And this happens, you just don't know why."

This was reader's first season with the Augusta Symphony.

He moved to about a year ago and was originally from Kansas.

Apart from the symphony, he also taught music and was trying out for the Atlanta Opera Orchestra.

There is a cash reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest in the case, and anyone with tips can remain anonymous.