In the afternoon of October 5, 2022, a burst of violence shattered the quiet of a North Charleston, South Carolina neighborhood, leaving one man dead and two others wounded. Dominique B. Whitehead, a 29-year-old Black male, was in the yard of a home at the intersection of Hunters Ridge Lane and Peppertree Lane when gunfire erupted around 2:45 p.m. When North Charleston Police arrived, they found Whitehead and two other victims with gunshot wounds.
Emergency medical services were
dispatched to the scene, but Whitehead’s injuries proved to be fatal. The Dorchester County Coroner's Office pronounced him dead at 5:00 p.m. The other two victims were transported to a local hospital for treatment of their injuries. An autopsy was scheduled to be performed at the Medical University of South Carolina to officially determine the cause of death.
The North Charleston Police Department immediately launched an investigation into the shooting. Their efforts led to the identification of two suspects. The first, 23-year-old Avery Aaron Adams, was arrested and charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. He was also charged with possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
A second suspect, 19-year-old J'Von Sh'Mar Rhodes, was later apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Task Force in conjunction with the North Charleston Police Department. He faced the same charges as Adams: one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. Both men were taken into custody as the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of Dominique Whitehead continued.
