On a tragic afternoon in Ladson, South Carolina, a domestic dispute escalated into a horrific triple homicide that claimed the life of 36-year-old John A. Childs of Boston, Massachusetts. On December 27, 2024, Childs, his sister Adrienne Seay, 38, and their father, John F. Childs, 68, were fatally shot inside an apartment at the Abberly Crossing complex.
The gunman was identified as 44-year-old Darius Seay, Adrienne's estranged husband.
The incident unfolded following a commotion and banging noises that witnesses reported hearing from the apartment. Seay then emerged from the residence carrying his and Adrienne's five-year-old child. In a harrowing encounter, he pistol-whipped a witness who confronted him in the breezeway before fleeing in a black Ford Explorer. Witnesses saw him don a bulletproof vest and a combat-style helmet while retrieving an AR-15 style rifle from his vehicle.
Information from witnesses at the scene enabled law enforcement to track Seay to a residence approximately eight miles away. As police approached, Seay emerged from the home with the young child. He released the child to the officers before turning the gun on himself, ending his own life. The child was physically unharmed.
Further investigation revealed that Darius Seay had been arrested just a day before the murders on a charge of second-degree assault and battery. He was released from the Charleston County detention center on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond approximately eight hours later, about thirty hours before the fatal shootings. He and Adrienne Seay had been married for nearly ten years and were in the process of a divorce, which had been filed earlier that year.
