On the afternoon of August 30, 2019, 20-year-old Michael Chuckie Jaqueze Bethea was walking near Barton Road in Allendale, South Carolina when he was confronted by 36-year-old coworker Courdell Dejuan Loadholt. The disagreement related to an ongoing dispute Loadholt had with Bethea’s aunt, who worked with both men. Loadholt, driving with his 12-year-old son, stopped, retrieved a semi-automatic pistol and fired multiple times, striking Bethea three times in the back. Bethea was left crawling in the road; two nurses who happened upon him applied pressure and drove him to a nearby hospital, but he was pronounced dead about half an hour after the shooting.

Loadholt called 9-1-1 after going to a relative’s house and said he had acted in self-defense and that Bethea was armed. Investigators found no weapon at the scene; the nurses who aided Bethea said he was unarmed. Loadholt surrendered the pistol and ballistics linked it to casings at the scene. Loadholt was arrested and charged with murder; a jury in December 2023 rejected the self-defense claim and found him guilty, and he received a 30-year prison sentence for the broad-daylight shooting.

Did anyone in the community know about the earlier dispute between the coworkers or witness the confrontation on Barton Road?