In the early morning hours of Friday, September 6, 2019, the life of 25-year-old Michael Antonio Brice was tragically cut short in Columbia, South Carolina. The Columbia Police Department responded to a call on the 7300 block of Patterson Road just before 5 a.m. Upon arrival, officers discovered Brice outside an apartment, where he did not live, suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body.
He succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
An investigation revealed that the shooting stemmed from an argument between acquaintances. The man identified as the suspect in Brice's death was 36-year-old James Hanton. Following the incident, Hanton fled the state, prompting a multi-agency manhunt. Four days later, on September 10, 2019, members of the U.S. Marshals Service, along with local police departments, located and apprehended Hanton in Buffalo, New York, over 700 miles away from the scene of the crime. He was held in the Erie County Holding Center pending extradition back to Columbia to face charges of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
In a related incident on the same day as Brice's death, one of his relatives, 21-year-old Dabreon Derrick, was arrested for a suspected retaliatory shooting. Derrick allegedly fired at an occupied car on Mountain Drive, though the occupants were not believed to be directly connected to Brice's murder.
