Christopher David Sullivan, a 40-year-old White/Caucasian man from Florence, South Carolina, was killed on the night of October 18, 2025, in a shooting on Bartley Court near the Southern Pine Mobile Home Park, off Howe Springs Road in Florence County. Although the information initially supplied for the case listed Sullivan as 35, an online memorial created for Christopher David Sullivan gives his birth date as August 22, 1985, and states that he died in Florence on October 18, 2025, making him
40 at the time of his death. Local reporting said neighbors in the area heard what sounded like a gunshot late that Saturday night. Deputies responded to the Bartley Court area, where Sullivan had been fatally shot.
Investigators said the violence grew out of a confrontation rather than a random attack. According to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office account reported by local news outlets, Steven Allen Howle, 36, traveled from his home in Lamar to the Bartley Court location. Authorities alleged that Howle went there to confront Sullivan. A verbal altercation followed, and investigators said Howle presented a firearm during the dispute and shot Sullivan, causing his death. Early reporting noted that one suspect was already in custody shortly after the killing, while investigators continued working to determine the circumstances surrounding the confrontation.
Howle was arrested on October 19, the day after the shooting. He was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Authorities placed him in the Florence County Detention Center pending a bond hearing. The allegations against Howle were that he had deliberately traveled from Lamar to the Florence area, became involved in the confrontation with Sullivan, and then fired the shot that killed him. At the time of the initial arrest, sheriff’s investigators described the case as still under investigation and released few details about what had caused the dispute or what had been said immediately before the gunfire.
The investigation soon expanded beyond the alleged shooter. On October 23, deputies arrested Chelsea Graham Dew, 33, of Florence. Authorities accused Dew of driving Howle to the Bartley Court location before the fatal confrontation. She was charged with murder, making her the second person arrested in connection with Sullivan’s death. Reporting on the arrest said investigators believed two people had traveled to the location before the confrontation, with Dew allegedly providing transportation and Howle accused of carrying out the shooting. Both Howle and Dew were being held at the Florence County Detention Center following their arrests.
The murder charge against Dew indicates that investigators viewed her alleged participation as legally significant even though authorities identified Howle as the person accused of producing the firearm and shooting Sullivan. Public reports did not describe Dew as having fired a weapon; instead, they focused on the allegation that she drove Howle to the scene. Howle separately faced the additional weapon charge because of the firearm allegedly used during the killing. Investigators did not publicly provide a detailed motive beyond describing the encounter as a verbal altercation or confrontation that escalated into gunfire.
In the online reporting located through August 2026, the case was documented through the investigation and arrest stages, with Howle accused of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime and Dew accused of murder. The available news coverage reviewed did not report that either defendant had been convicted, acquitted, entered a guilty plea, or gone through a completed murder trial. The last detailed reports concerning Sullivan’s killing continued to describe the defendants as accused persons being held in connection with the case, meaning the criminal charges remained allegations rather than proof of guilt in the reporting available.
