Luther Woodard “Woody” Cribb III, 51, a white man from Ladson, South Carolina, died after a late-night encounter at a convenience store in the Summerville area of Berkeley County left him mortally wounded. In the early hours of August 9, 2015, authorities were alerted to his death at Trident Hospital, where he had been rushed from a Highway 17A gas station after being shot.
The Berkeley County Coroner reported the cause as a gunshot wound and said an autopsy would follow as investigators worked to piece together what happened in the parking lot.
In the hours leading up to the violence, prosecutors later said Cribb had been lingering around the Kangaroo gas station, asking customers for spare change. Just after about 2:00 a.m., a red Hummer pulled in carrying several men. An argument flared between Cribb and the driver, Marquez Brown, and the dispute quickly turned physical—Brown punched Cribb, Cribb swung back, and the two squared up to fight. From the back seat, Davon Washington got out and rushed toward them. Prosecutors said that, as he closed to within arm’s reach, Washington raised a handgun and shot the unarmed Cribb in the abdomen, a moment captured on the station’s video surveillance.
Wounded, Cribb ran inside the store and collapsed. He was transported to Trident Hospital in North Charleston, but he did not survive; the solicitor’s office later described him dying a few hours after the shooting as he was being wheeled into surgery.
Investigators moved quickly. Using witness information and surveillance footage, detectives identified the suspect vehicle and issued a BOLO. Within about an hour, law enforcement located the red Hummer in North Charleston and stopped it. Washington was found seated in the back, and investigators reported locating a silver-and-gold. 25 caliber semi-automatic handgun in his pocket. In the immediate aftermath, Brown was arrested and charged with Accessory After the Fact of Murder, while Washington was arrested and charged with Murder. A passenger, Ramon Gamble, was arrested on unrelated charges and questioned in connection with the case, and authorities also said a fourth individual was being sought for questioning.
Two years later, the case reached a decisive courtroom turn. On August 30, 2017, Washington pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the shooting and killing of Cribb, and Circuit Court Judge Maite Murphy sentenced him to twenty-five years in prison. Prosecutors said Washington initially denied involvement, then confessed after learning a co-defendant had identified him as the shooter; at sentencing, family members addressed the court, describing the depth of their loss and the hole left behind by Cribb’s death.
