In the early morning hours of December 22, 2022, the life of Ahkeyra Phylann Raysor, a 22-year-old Black woman, was tragically cut short. Police responded to a call of shots fired at the Burfield Apartments on Cambridge Avenue East in Greenwood, South Carolina, at approximately 1 a.m. Upon their arrival, they discovered Raysor in a bedroom with a gunshot wound.
The Greenwood County Coroner's Office pronounced her dead at the scene.
The investigation into the death of the young woman from Columbia, South Carolina, quickly progressed. Detectives began interviewing witnesses and processing the scene for evidence to understand the sequence of events that led to the fatal shooting. Their efforts soon led them to a suspect.
Wilson Justice Smith, a 24-year-old, was arrested in connection with Raysor's death. He has since been charged with murder and is being held at the Greenwood County Detention Center without bond. Authorities have indicated that they do not believe this shooting is connected to another recent deadly incident in the area.
While an autopsy was scheduled to confirm the exact cause of death, the motive behind the shooting has not been released to the public. The investigation by the Greenwood Police Department is ongoing. As the legal process against Wilson Justice Smith moves forward, the community is left to mourn the loss of a young life.
