In the winter of 2019, a young Black man named Jamell Shikeem “Mell” Wingfield, 21, found his life cut tragically short in Greenville, South Carolina. On the evening of January 26th, deputies from the Greenville County Sheriff's Office were called to the Fleetwood Manor Apartments just before 8:30 p.m., where they discovered Wingfield in the parking lot with at least one gunshot wound.
He was rushed to Greenville Memorial Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries during surgery around 9:45 p.m.
The investigation into the shooting painted a grim picture of a robbery gone fatally wrong. Authorities determined that a group of individuals, including Niklaus Anthony Bennett and William Ramirez, had gone to the apartment complex with the intention of committing a robbery. During this criminal act, it was Ramirez who fired the shot that killed Wingfield. The tragic event underscored ongoing concerns about the safety and security measures in place at the apartment complex, leaving a grieving family to question if more could have been done to prevent such a senseless act of violence.
The case took a dramatic and violent turn just one day after Wingfield's death. In a strange twist of fate, William Ramirez, the man identified as Wingfield's shooter, was himself found murdered. Investigators believe that his accomplices, Niklaus Anthony Bennett and Stephon Rasheid Sherman, drove Ramirez to the end of Lakeside Road under the guise of committing another robbery. Once there, Bennett and Sherman allegedly shot and killed him. The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office subsequently arrested both men. Bennett was charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of both Wingfield and Ramirez, along with two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Sherman faced charges of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime for his role in Ramirez's death.
