In the winter of 2020, just days before Christmas, the life of a promising university student was tragically cut short in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Rodderick Lakeem Sparks, a 23-year-old Black male, was fatally shot on December 21, 2020. A student of business management at the University of South Carolina Upstate, he was on the verge of graduating.
The evening of the shooting, deputies responded to a call at an apartment complex near the university campus.
There, they found that Sparks had been shot through a door in the back. He was rushed to a nearby medical center but succumbed to his injuries. The investigation that followed suggested that the incident may have been related to illegal narcotics.
In the months following the shooting, law enforcement officials were able to identify and apprehend three individuals in connection with Sparks's death. Tyshawn Issac Gray Jordan, then 19 years old, was identified as the primary suspect. After fleeing the state, he was located and arrested in Massachusetts. Jordan was subsequently charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and discharging a firearm into a dwelling.
Two other men, Marquese Dashaun Tart, 21, and Trajan Jasia Mack, 21, were also arrested and charged with accessory after the fact. It was reported that none of the three suspects were students at the university. The arrests brought a measure of relief to Sparks's grieving family, who remembered him as a young man striving to better himself. The university community also mourned the loss of one of their own, making counseling services available to students and staff affected by the tragedy.
