Sunshine Star Housey was a 26-year-old Black/African American woman from Columbia, South Carolina, whose life ended on April 21, 2015, after gunfire erupted outside the Colony Apartments along Bailey Street. It began in the early evening, the kind of hour when people are still out and voices carry, and the street had drawn a crowd that was already tense before the first shot was heard.
Police were first sent toward the apartments on reports of a civil disturbance just after 5:30 p.m., and arriving officers found a large group arguing and fighting. Investigators later said the gunman fired multiple rounds into that gathering, turning the commotion into panic. Housey was struck and pronounced dead at the scene; the Richland County coroner said the fatal injury was a gunshot wound to the upper body. Another man was also hit and rushed to a local hospital for treatment.
By the next day, Columbia police announced an arrest. Curtis Long was taken into custody and charged in connection with the shooting, facing a murder charge as well as charges tied to the second victim, including attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Authorities said Long was being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center while investigators continued working to understand what sparked the violence, noting that additional arrests were possible as witnesses were interviewed and more information was gathered.
In the days that followed, Housey’s name shifted from the urgency of breaking news to the quiet rituals of goodbye. Funeral arrangements published afterward described services at Zion Canaan Baptist Church with burial in Lincoln Cemetery, with wake services at Leevy’s Funeral Home on Taylor Street. The notice said Housey was survived by a spouse, Dexter Isaac, and three children—Zetta J. Housey, Dexter Isaac Jr., and Za’Kayah R. Isaac—along with a large circle of siblings, grandparents, relatives, and friends left to carry the weight of a death that arrived in an instant.
