Willie Lee Duggans, an 18-year-old Black / African American male from North Charleston, South Carolina, was killed on October 10, 2017, after gunfire shattered the afternoon on Redwood Street in the Chicora-Cherokee area. Officers rushed in and found him collapsed on the porch of an apartment, wounded in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Charleston County Coroner’s Office later confirmed his identity as the victim in what police counted among the city’s homicides that
year.
In the months that followed, the case lingered with more questions than answers, and investigators pushed for anything that might break the silence. By February 2018, North Charleston police publicly asked for help identifying a vehicle they believed could be tied to what happened: a silver or light-gold Chrysler 200 with aftermarket wheels and a front vanity plate. Police said the car was seen leaving the area shortly after the shooting, last spotted turning left onto Carner Avenue from Burton Lane and heading toward Charleston, and they urged anyone who recognized it—or knew who was behind the wheel—to come forward.
That summer, the investigation took a dramatic turn. Authorities working with a U.S. Marshals task force moved in on Willis Ivey, who police said was wanted in connection with two homicides, including the Redwood Street killing on October 10, 2017. When officers tried to make contact, police said the driver refused to stop, leading to a chase that ended in a crash with a North Charleston police cruiser near Rivers Avenue and I-526. Afterward, police said the suspect ran from the wreck and was captured in a wooded area nearby; officers also took a passenger from the vehicle into custody. Reporting at the time described Ivey as being charged with two murders, along with additional charges that included weapons-related warrants, failure to stop for blue lights and siren, and assault on police while resisting.
Years later, court proceedings tied to that 2018 pursuit produced a separate outcome: a Charleston County jury convicted Ivey of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and failure to stop for blue lights, stemming from a police chase and crash involving a marked K-9 unit vehicle, and he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for those convictions. At the time of that sentencing, reporting stated that the two murder charges filed in 2018 were still pending in the system.
