James TreVaughn Black II was a 22-year-old man from Columbia, South Carolina, known to those closest to him as “Tre,” a son and brother whose life had been shaped by church, school, and big dreams long before a single night on Sycamore Avenue changed everything. Born on September 20, 2000, at Baptist Medical Center in Columbia, he grew up in a close-knit family with his parents, James and Ella Black, and siblings who described him as loving and intelligent.
From an early age he was deeply involved in the Emmanuel Church of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, where he was baptized and raised in the faith, surrounded by a congregation that watched him grow from a boy in the pews into a young adult still rooted in the same community.
Tre’s family remembered him as remarkably bright, with what they described as a photographic memory that helped him excel in school. His education began in preschool at Covenant Christian Academy and North Minister Early Childhood Development Center, and he went on to schools in Lexington School District 2, staying on the honor roll at Davis Elementary and continuing to push himself academically through middle school. He was not only a student but a musician, learning to play the French horn in band and becoming a gifted drummer who took formal lessons and amazed those who heard him play. At Airport High School he put his energy into football, suiting up as a defensive end for the Eagles and nurturing a dream of playing professionally, a dream that was ultimately derailed by two torn ACL injuries that forced him to let go of that particular future but not his determination.
After graduating from Airport High School in 2018, Tre left South Carolina for Hocking College in Ohio, majoring in electrical engineering and trying to chart a new path for himself. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted campus life, he returned home to Columbia and focused on working alongside his father. The two shared what his obituary described as “many business adventures and endeavors,” and Tre was employed with J & E Lawn Services, contributing to the family’s efforts and building a life rooted in hard work and responsibility. The same obituary lists the loved ones he left behind: his parents, two sisters, a niece and nephew, and a wide circle of extended family and friends who spoke of him as someone whose presence filled rooms and whose absence would leave a lasting ache.
In the early hours of Thursday, November 3, 2022, the quiet of Columbia’s 1300 block of Sycamore Avenue, just off North Main Street, was shattered. Around 12:30 a.m., Columbia police responded to reports of gunfire in the neighborhood. When officers arrived, they found Tre mortally wounded; despite efforts by first responders, he did not survive. The scene, in a residential area where neighbors were used to the stillness of late night, quickly filled with flashing blue lights, leaving residents to watch from their homes and porches as investigators worked. One neighbor later recalled seeing the sudden flood of police cars and learning that shots had been fired at a house where two elderly people had lived until their recent deaths, an unsettling detail that added to the sense that violence had intruded into a place already marked by loss.
In the days that followed, the Richland County Coroner formally identified the victim as James T. Black II of Columbia and confirmed that he had died of gunshot wounds sustained in the Sycamore Avenue incident. At the same time, Columbia Police pressed forward with their investigation into what they described as a homicide. Before long, attention turned to someone Tre knew personally. Authorities announced that 18-year-old Sharquis K. O’Neal had been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting. News reports stated that police described the victim and O’Neal as friends and referred to the violence as an “isolated” incident, suggesting that investigators did not believe the broader community was at risk from a random or ongoing threat.
According to public statements from local media and the coroner’s office, O’Neal was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in relation to Tre’s death. Jail and booking records from Richland County show that a person by that name, aged 18, was booked on November 8, 2022, on a murder-related charge, aligning with the timeline of the police announcement and reinforcing that he was being held to face serious accusations in connection with the Sycamore Avenue killing. Coverage from Columbia-area outlets emphasized that the case involved a shooting between people who knew one another rather than strangers, but authorities did not publicly release a detailed motive, leaving many questions about what had happened between the two young men in the moments before the gunfire.
While investigators and prosecutors moved the criminal case forward, Tre’s family and community turned their focus to honoring the life that had been taken. Funeral materials and memorial pages describe services filled with scripture, music, and tributes from friends, church members, and his father, all reflecting on the boy who grew up in the pews, the drummer whose rhythms anchored church services, the student-athlete who once chased college football dreams, and the young worker who came home during a pandemic and poured his energy into family business ventures. Those remembrances portray not just a victim of gun violence, but a whole person whose story stretched far beyond the crime scene on Sycamore Avenue—a story of promise, faith, and family ties now carried forward only in memory, even as the justice system continues to bear the weight of determining legal responsibility for his death.
