In the spring of 2022, a dispute over drugs at a Columbia, South Carolina apartment complex tragically cut short the life of 16-year-old De’Marion Corbett. A junior at Columbia High School, Corbett was at the Riverside Apartments on Lucius Road on the afternoon of April 20th when gunfire erupted. When police responded to reports of the shooting around 12:20 p.m., they found the young man had died at the scene.
The violence of that Wednesday afternoon also left two other teenagers, aged
17 and 18, with serious injuries requiring hospitalization. The community was left shaken, with the local school district mourning the loss of one of its students for the second time in less than a week. In the immediate aftermath, details about a potential shooter or the motive behind the gunfire were scarce, and no arrests were immediately made.
Two weeks later, law enforcement announced a breakthrough in the case. The U.S. Marshals Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force located and arrested 18-year-old Travis Gilmore Jr. in connection with the fatal shooting. Investigators determined that the shooting stemmed from an argument over drugs. Gilmore was subsequently charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, and possession of a firearm during a violent crime. At the time of the incident, Gilmore was reportedly out on bond for a separate, unrelated arrest from earlier that year.
