On a Friday morning, November 1, 2019, Joshua Emmanuel Peterson, a 28-year-old man from the Columbia area, drove along Two Notch Road in Richland County, South Carolina, unaware that he was being watched. That day had already taken him to the courthouse in downtown Columbia, and as he left, the ordinary rhythm of his life seemed to continue: driving, dropping off a passenger, heading back out on the road.
What he could not see was that someone had chosen this as the moment to settle an old dispute, turning an everyday drive into a carefully planned attack.
Late that morning, around 11:20 a.m., shots rang out on the busy stretch of Two Notch Road near Two Notch Plaza, not far from Columbia Place Mall. Witnesses later described hearing a rapid series of gunshots as a black car sped past. Investigators said the gunfire came from a black Dodge Dart that pulled alongside Joshua’s vehicle and opened up on the driver’s side, leaving at least ten bullet holes punched into the door and window. His car veered off the road and into a ditch along Cadia Drive. Despite being gravely wounded, Joshua managed to climb out of the vehicle and flag down help, collapsing in the roadway as stunned bystanders watched emergency crews rush in.
Paramedics transported him to Prisma Health Richland Hospital, but the damage was too severe. The Richland County coroner later reported that Joshua died from complications of a gunshot wound to the lower part of his body, injuries sustained in the barrage of bullets fired at his car. The shooting location on Two Notch Road, ordinarily crowded with daytime traffic and businesses, became a prolonged crime scene as deputies closed off the area, documented shell casings, and examined the riddled vehicle that had come to rest in the ditch. What began as a routine drive ended in a carefully documented homicide, with investigators marking the path of each bullet and trying to reconstruct the moments before the ambush.
Behind the crime-scene tape was the story of a young father and son whose life had been rooted in the Midlands. Joshua was born on March 22, 1991, and educated in Lexington County School District 5 before attending Midlands Technical College. Obituary notices describe a large, tightly knit family: parents Michael and Rochelle, numerous siblings, and grandparents who mourned him alongside his two young daughters, Kayana Shyann and Kaniya Nevaeh. Public tributes remember a man who was loved by friends and family, someone whose death left a deep absence at home, at family gatherings, and among those who grew up with him in and around Columbia and Irmo.
In the immediate aftermath, deputies focused on the mysterious black Dodge Dart that had pulled up beside Joshua’s car. Early reports spoke of a suspect or suspects in that vehicle, fleeing the scene as Joshua’s car went off the road. For several days, the investigation unfolded with little public detail: roads were reopened, but a sense of unease lingered as authorities appealed to the community for information, emphasizing that this was not believed to be a random act of violence. The location of the shooting—a busy corridor lined with businesses and close to a shopping mall—only heightened concern, even as investigators quietly worked through leads and eyewitness accounts.
Within a week, Sheriff Leon Lott announced a major break in the case. Investigators had traced the attack back to that courthouse visit earlier in the day. According to the sheriff, two men—44-year-old Aaron Evans and 25-year-old Simeon Miller—had watched Joshua at the courthouse, followed him when he left, and then shadowed his vehicle across town. Once they realized he was alone in the car, they moved in. On U.S. Highway 1 and onto the Two Notch Road corridor, they allegedly seized their chance, pulling alongside and opening fire. Lott called the killing an “assassination” and a “premeditated” act, describing it as a targeted hit rather than a crime of passion or random street violence.
Authorities said Joshua knew both Evans and Miller, and that the shooting grew out of an ongoing disagreement between them, though the specific nature of that conflict was never fully spelled out in public statements. Community tips and witness cooperation were credited with helping deputies identify and locate the suspects. Evans was arrested in Columbia, while Miller was taken into custody in Charleston. Both men were charged with murder in connection with Joshua’s death, their arrests announced at press conferences where the sheriff spoke sharply about a small group of “little gangsters” he believed were driving much of the area’s gun violence. The public record in widely available news reports centers on those arrests and charges, leaving Joshua’s family and community to carry forward his memory while the legal system dealt with the men accused of turning a young father’s routine day in court into his final journey down a busy Columbia road.
