Donna Major, a 59-year-old female, was tragically killed on August 21, 2017, a day that also featured a solar eclipse. She was working as a bank teller at the CresCom Bank on 16th Avenue in Conway, South Carolina, when a man named Brandon Michael Council entered the building. Council, who was on the run for other robberies in North Carolina, had been staying at a nearby motel.
Inside the bank, Council approached Donna Major at the teller counter under the pretense of cashing a check.
After a brief moment, he pulled out a. 22-caliber handgun and shot her. As she tried to shield herself with papers, he shot her again. Her coworker, 36-year-old Katie Skeen, screamed from her office, drawing Council's attention. He then went into Skeen's office and fatally shot her as she hid under her desk. Before fleeing, Council returned to Major, who was lying on the ground, and shot her again. He stole approximately $15,000 and fled in Skeen's car.
Council was apprehended a few days later in Greenville, North Carolina. He was charged with two counts of murder and armed bank robbery, among other charges. Following a trial in federal court, a jury found Brandon Council guilty of the murders of Donna Major and Katie Skeen and sentenced him to death in October 2019.
In a later development, in December 2024, the President commuted Council's federal death sentence to life in prison, a decision that was met with shock and disappointment by the victims' families. Subsequently, in September 2025, the state of South Carolina announced its intention to pursue its own capital case against Council for the murders.
