In the winter of 2019, the life of 35-year-old Exavier Washington of Summerville, South Carolina, was tragically cut short. On the afternoon of February 4th, a single gunshot shattered the quiet of a North Charleston apartment complex on Kraft Avenue. A neighbor, startled by the sound of a bullet piercing their wall, promptly alerted the authorities.
Responding officers from the North Charleston Police Department entered a grim scene.
Inside one of the apartments, they discovered evidence of a violent encounter: spent ammunition casings and bloodstains on the floor. In a rear bedroom, they found the unresponsive body of Exavier Washington, fatally wounded. Emergency medical services were called to the scene, but it was too late; he was pronounced dead.
The investigation that followed pointed to a targeted attack rather than a random act of violence. Evidence gathered by detectives soon led them to a suspect, a man identified by the last name of Smalls. He was taken into custody and charged with the murder of Exavier Washington. Following his arrest, Smalls was booked into the Charleston County Detention Center to await a bond hearing as the legal process against him began. The motive for the shooting was not immediately made public as the investigation continued.
