On the evening of Thursday, January 26, 2017, 19-year-old Kyre Raquan Bethea was fatally shot in a Sumter, South Carolina, residence on Somerset Drive. Witnesses said Bethea and a 17-year-old acquaintance, Rhythm Sharmell Portee, were handling a handgun as part of a game when it discharged, the bullet striking Bethea in the chest. Bethea was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

The firearm involved was later linked to a recent vehicle break-in. Portee fled the scene but was located shortly afterward at a nearby home and taken into custody. The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office charged Portee with manslaughter; he was already out on bond at the time on an attempted murder charge from a December shooting. Does anyone have information about the weapon theft or the events at the Somerset Drive residence that night?