In the early morning hours of February 15, 2015, Saequan Vereen, a 23-year-old male, was fatally shot outside Club Levelz in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The cause of his death was determined to be from a gunshot that caused trauma to his vital organs. When police arrived at the nightclub on Ninth Avenue North, they discovered Vereen lying on the sidewalk.
The investigation into the shooting revealed it was a murder-for-hire plot.
Kevin Tyrone Bryant, 31 years old at the time, was identified as the gunman. Surveillance footage showed Bryant waiting in the club's parking lot, crouching between cars for several minutes before Vereen exited the building. After shooting Vereen, Bryant was himself shot by security guards hired by the club before he fled the scene. He was apprehended by police a few blocks away, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Further investigation led to the arrest of two other individuals. Robbie Lee Bufkin, then 35, was charged with murder and other offenses after it was determined that he had hired Bryant and offered money for Vereen's killing. According to arrest warrants, Bufkin was instrumental in planning the 'execution-style murder' because of a rumor that Vereen was a 'snitch'. Tiffany Miranda Taylor, 34 at the time, was also charged as an accessory after the fact.
In December 2016, a jury found Kevin Tyrone Bryant guilty of the murder of Saequan Vereen after a two-and-a-half-day trial. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. In a plea deal, the murder and weapons charges against Robbie Lee Bufkin were dropped, and he pleaded guilty to a trafficking charge, receiving a 16-year prison sentence. The case against Tiffany Miranda Taylor was still pending at the time of Bryant's conviction.
