On September 15, 2024, at about 1:10 a.m., shots were fired near the City Café in Williamston, North Carolina, and 26-year-old Dontrell Ra’Kwan Bonds was later found with multiple gunshot wounds at Cherry’s Cupboard in the Bear Grass community. Officers monitoring a large crowd heard gunfire; the crowd dispersed and initial attempts to locate victims were unsuccessful. Bonds was taken to ECU Health in Greenville, where he died of his injuries.

Investigators say Bonds had been involved in an altercation with two men identified as brothers Tyrene Griffin, 42, and Willie Smallwood, 34, before the shooting. Griffin was arrested on September 20 and charged with an open count of murder; Smallwood was arrested October 1 at the Belle Meade apartment complex with help from the Greenville Police Department and the SBI Fugitive Task Force. Both face charges connected to Bonds’ death. Bonds, known as Donnie G, was a father of two, a hip-hop artist, a 2018 Riverside High School graduate, and employed at World Cat in Tarboro.

The Williamston Police Department continues to investigate and asks anyone with information to come forward. Did anyone in the area see or hear anything that night?