Adrian Terrell Smith was a 29-year-old Black man from Asheville, North Carolina. On the night of April 3, 2020, his life was cut short in a violent home invasion. Around 11:20 p.m., Asheville police officers were dispatched to the Pisgah View Apartments after a report of a person with a gunshot wound. Inside one of the apartments, they found two men who had been shot. Mr. Smith succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
The second victim, a 39-year-old man, was transported to Mission Hospital with critical injuries.
The Asheville Police Department’s investigation revealed that two armed individuals had entered the residence through a back door before the shooting began. Investigators used surveillance footage to track the suspects as they approached and fled the building. Within a week, police made their first arrest. On April 10, they charged 29-year-old Tyran Dewayne Burton with aiding and abetting first-degree murder. He was held at the Buncombe County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond.
On April 13, authorities asked for the public’s help in locating two more men they identified as suspects, Dajour Johahaun McDay and Sherwayne Akeem Bascom, noting that both were considered armed and dangerous. The following day, McDay turned himself in to police. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The search for Bascom continued for nearly two months. On June 11, he was apprehended in Waterbury, Connecticut, in an operation by the U.S. Marshal Service Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force and local police. A woman, Shanice Sheronda McDay, was also arrested with Bascom on an outstanding warrant for accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
Over the next several years, the men charged in Adrian Smith’s death faced justice. Dajour Johahaun McDay pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and firearm possession. In November 2025, co-defendant Sherwayne Akeem Bascom pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a prison sentence of 19 to 24 years for his role in the killing.
The legal process concluded in September 2026. On September 21, Tyran Dewayne Burton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and assault. A judge sentenced him to a combined prison term of 39 to 50 years. This sentence included 365 to 450 months for the murder charge, with a consecutive sentence of 110 to 144 months for the assault.
