The night was fading into early morning on Sunday, August 16, 2015, when the life of Richard Dewayne Butler, Jr., a 24-year-old Black man from Hollywood, South Carolina, came to a violent end. The initial friction began an hour before the shooting, inside a local nightclub where an argument took place between Richard and another young man, Kyree Devon Waters. After the club closed, the tension followed them and a crowd of others to the bright, artificial lights of a Kangaroo gas station at the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and S.C. Highway 165 in the rural community of Ravenel.
A large group of people milled about the gas station parking lot shortly after 2 a.m. Inside the store, Waters was in line to make a purchase when Richard walked in. Words were exchanged again before Richard turned and walked back out into the humid South Carolina air. Surveillance footage from the gas station captured what happened next, showing Waters following Richard as he exited the store.
The two met behind the building, where their argument escalated into a fatal confrontation. The night was shattered by the sound of gunfire, and the crowd that had filled the parking lot quickly scattered.
When Charleston County sheriff's deputies arrived at the chaotic scene, they discovered seven spent 9mm shell casings and a trail of blood on the pavement. Richard was not there. A bystander, seeing Richard run and then collapse in the parking lot, had helped him into a car and rushed him toward a hospital. The driver, whose car had been shot on the passenger's side and had a flat front tire, found deputies at St. Francis Hospital and asked for their help getting Richard out of the vehicle. Richard had sustained multiple gunshot wounds and, despite medical efforts, died at the hospital around 7 a.m.
The investigation into Richard’s death began immediately. While many people were present at the gas station, only three witnesses came forward to report what they saw. Their accounts, along with the surveillance video, were crucial for investigators. The witnesses largely agreed that Richard had pulled out a gun first and fired at Waters, grazing the back of his head. The video footage reportedly showed both men firing at each other as Richard ran away. Waters, who was also injured in the exchange, did not seek immediate medical attention and initially hid from law enforcement. He turned himself in to authorities 12 days later, after arrest warrants were issued.
Kyree Devon Waters, then 20 years old, was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The case, however, did not culminate in a murder conviction. Waters' defense attorney prepared a strong self-defense argument, citing the witness statements that Richard fired first. Prosecutors acknowledged that these facts made a conviction at trial highly unlikely and that a jury might view the two as "mutual combatants." In a plea deal reached in February 2017, Waters pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and pointing a firearm. He was sentenced to the minimum of two years in prison. With credit for time already served, he was expected to be released in less than nine months.
The loss left a deep void in the lives of Richard's family. He was a father to two daughters, Harmony and Navaeh. His obituary remembered him as a son to Kimberly Maxwell and Richard Butler, Sr., and a brother to three sisters and a brother. A week after his death, friends and relatives gathered to celebrate his life at Grace Cathedral Church, before he was laid to rest at Mt. Nebo AME Church cemetery in Adams Run. While the legal case concerning his death is closed, the questions and pain for those who knew and loved him undoubtedly remain.
