Mekhi Lance Courtney, a 22-year-old man from Columbia, South Carolina, died on May 28, 2024, after gunfire erupted in the Forest Acres area at The Landings apartment complex on Covenant Road. What began as an ordinary Tuesday evening turned into a case that—months later—his family said still felt stuck in place, with answers arriving slowly and justice seeming even farther away.
Authorities said the shooting happened in the apartment complex parking lot.
Rather than a frantic 911 call bringing officers rushing in, police learned about it only after two men with gunshot wounds showed up at a hospital just before 8 p.m., triggering Columbia Police to alert Forest Acres investigators. When officers reached the complex, they found evidence of the shooting, and neighbors later told police they’d heard a disturbance around 7 p.m.—but officials said dispatch never received a report from witnesses or the victims. Courtney later died at the hospital, while the second victim, reported to be from Lexington, survived and continued recovering.
As the investigation dragged on, Courtney’s father publicly described what he believed happened: he said his son had been “set up,” and characterized the encounter as an attempted robbery in which the person his son expected to meet never came out—someone else did, opening fire without warning, riddling the vehicle and striking Courtney’s cousin as well. He also said the family initially received regular updates, then learned the case had been reassigned and progress felt stalled. In that same period, a news outlet reported filing a public-records request and asking Forest Acres police about developments, including whether any arrests had been made; the outlet said police did not provide answers. In the coverage reviewed, no suspects were publicly identified and no arrests were publicly announced.
In the months that followed, the story of his death became braided with the story of who he had been to the people who loved him. His funeral home announced services in early June 2024, and by summer 2025 his family was channeling grief into something he had wanted while alive: a youth football and cheerleading league built around mentorship and structure. His mother described taking the lead to carry his plans forward, turning his unfinished dream into a community project meant to keep other young people safer, busier, and surrounded by guidance—an answer to violence that refused to let the last word belong to the gunshots in that parking lot.
