In the quiet community of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, the life of 20-year-old Deondre Ontonio Brown was tragically cut short on the evening of December 11, 2019. The young man was shot and killed outside his grandmother's home on Martin Luther King Drive in what authorities would later describe as a retaliatory act stemming from an earlier altercation.
Hours before the fatal shooting, an incident occurred that would set in motion a devastating chain of events.
Aiden Marshall Zasimovitch, then 17, claimed that Brown and another individual, Colby Monroe Barnes, had assaulted him at his residence and stolen a quantity of marijuana. This alleged robbery was not reported to the police at the time. Instead, Zasimovitch, along with a 15-year-old accomplice, Chandler Sports, allegedly devised a plan to rob Brown.
That evening, Brown was sitting in a car with his aunt and uncle when he received a phone call that led to an argument. He then exited the vehicle and walked toward the side of the house. Sports had arranged to meet Brown, purportedly to lure him out, while Zasimovitch lay in wait in the nearby woods armed with a. 22 caliber rifle. As Brown moved away from the car, Zasimovitch opened fire. Brown's uncle reported hearing gunshots and seeing muzzle flashes. Despite being wounded, Brown managed to run back towards his relatives, urging them to flee to safety before he collapsed in the backyard, where he succumbed to his injuries. The house itself was also struck by bullets.
The morning after the shooting, law enforcement officers removed Zasimovitch, Barnes, and the 15-year-old from their classes at Waccamaw High School for questioning. Their arrests soon followed. Zasimovitch was charged with murder and armed robbery. During the investigation, he admitted to shooting Brown. Barnes faced charges of strong-armed robbery and drug possession. The charges against the juvenile accomplice were not publicly detailed.
In August 2021, on the second day of his murder trial, Aiden Zasimovitch pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and criminal conspiracy. A judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Chandler Sports, the younger accomplice, pleaded guilty to attempted strong-arm robbery in September 2022 and was sentenced to a youthful offender program for a term not to exceed five years. Brown's family expressed that they felt justice had been served, though his grandmother noted that the pain of her grandson's death in her own backyard would forever haunt her.
