As two dead men lay just inside his apartment door, Brandan M. Daugherty politely explained to a Columbus police dispatcher how they got there. "They're laying right in front of me dead, ma'am," he told the dispatcher. "Oh, you shot them?" she asked. "Yes, ma'am," he replied.

As two dead men lay just inside his apartment door, Brandan M. Daugherty politely explained to a Columbus police dispatcher how they got there.

�They�re laying right in front of me dead, ma�am,� he told the dispatcher.

�Oh, you shot them?� she asked.

�Yes, ma�am,� he replied.

Daugherty, 20, was in his Northwest Side apartment at 2550 Farrel Dr. with another man just before 5 p.m. on Monday when someone knocked on the door of Apt. 217, according to police reports and the 911 recording.

Listen to the 911 call from the scene (MP3)

The person knocking gave the name of a friend Daugherty was expecting, he told the dispatcher. But when he opened the door, it was someone else. And he had a gun.

�I opened the door, they hit me in the face with a gun,� he said in the recording. �I shot.�

Daugherty said he knew at least one of the men he�d just killed. They used to be friends.

�But we�re no longer, obviously, friends,� he said. �They�re these people that I met chilling out on campus and we were friends, but, you know, I guess not.�

Daugherty said one of the men �dropped his weapon. I took it and shot him.�

Police arrived and found James-Michael T. Brice, 21, and Lentwan M. Smith, 20, dead.

It�s unclear who shot first. Neighbors calling 911 said they heard lots of gunshots. Before Daugherty got on the phone, another man in the apartment told the dispatcher, �two people just broke into the house and they started shooting so we had to shoot.�

Detectives said Brice and Smith were trying to rob Daugherty�s place at Sawmill Crossing Apartments of drugs.

They�re still looking for a four-door light blue 2000 Buick with the license plate GFK9858 that was seen leaving the scene. Anyone with information is asked to call 614-645-4730.

Neither Daugherty nor Cory T. Speakman, 19, the other man listed as being in the apartment, has been charged. Detectives said they would forward the case to the Franklin County prosecutor�s office for review.

Reached by phone, Daugherty�s mother declined to comment. Speakman did not respond to a phone message or note left at his Northwest Side home.

Both Smith and Brice went to Brookhaven High School, school records show. Smith lived on the Northeast Side with his mother, who was too distraught to speak to a reporter.

Brice�s grandmother, Gloria Morris, was trying to reconcile what detectives say her grandson did with the polite, helpful man she knew.

�For some reason, yesterday it�s like he made a bad decision, if it�s what they said,� she said from her East Side home.

Anything she needed, Brice would do, she said. Mowing the lawn, cleaning up around the house, he was there for her.

Recently, Morris was thinking about what she�d do if someone broke into her home, like police say her grandson did. She�d try to defend herself, too, she said, just like Daugherty said he did.

�If that�s what happened,� she said of her grandson�s actions, �I can�t fault nobody but him."

amanning@dispatch.com

@allymanning