Albert Lee AJ Soles Jr., 24, was killed outside a Cook Out on North Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach just after midnight on September 11, 2020. Known to family as a protective big brother and a newly certified HVAC technician, he and friends were parked when a Mustang driven by 23-year-old Niko Juwan Williams pulled in and became involved in a long, escalating confrontation with two women. Witnesses say the argument turned physical after one woman touched a GoPro on Williams’s car; Williams produced a handgun and, when Soles and his friend Charles Norris walked over to intervene, opened fire at close range.

Soles was struck multiple times and later pronounced dead at Grand Strand Medical Center. A friend, Matt Duncan, was also shot and survived after emergency surgery. Williams reportedly fled but was located hours later in a Walmart parking lot and taken into custody. Myrtle Beach police treated the case as a homicide; initial charges included murder, attempted murder, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. The victims were described by investigators as unarmed and having stepped in to protect others.

Does anyone have information about AJ’s movements that night or about witnesses who heard the confrontation at the Cook Out?