Christavious Darby was a 22-year-old Black man from Orangeburg, South Carolina, whose night out ended in violence at the Pit Stop Pub, a nightclub on Bamberg Highway a short drive south of town. In the early-morning hours of August 15, 2015, gunfire tore through the parking lot, and Darby was struck. He died there at the scene, while the chaos he left behind spilled into the local hospital as other wounded men rushed in for treatment.
Investigators described a scene that began with an altercation, the kind of argument that can flare in a crowded club and then follow people out into the dark. Witness accounts given to deputies said the shooter left the property in a tan Saturn with tinted windows and, before disappearing down the road, extended a gun from the car and fired multiple rounds toward people gathered outside. Authorities later emphasized that Darby was not part of the earlier confrontation, yet he was the one who never made it home. Three other men were shot but survived, treated for injuries that were reported as non-life-threatening.
Within days, the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office publicly named a suspect: Nazdric Gates of Mount Airy, North Carolina. A warrant was issued alleging Gates was responsible for the shooting, and law enforcement warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous as they sought information on his whereabouts. The case quickly expanded from a local homicide investigation into a search that reached beyond South Carolina’s borders, fueled by tips and the belief that Gates had fled the region.
The manhunt ended in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where authorities said Gates was located and taken into custody without incident during an operation involving federal and local fugitive resources; investigators said they had learned he had connections in the area and found him hiding at an apartment complex. After his arrest, officials said he would be returned to South Carolina to face a murder charge tied to Darby’s death, along with three counts of attempted murder and an additional weapons charge connected to the shooting that wounded the other men. By March 15, 2016, Gates had been brought back to South Carolina and appeared in court in Orangeburg County, where a judge deferred bond, marking his first reported court appearance there since his capture out west.
