On March 23, 2024, Vantrell Hanna, a 20-year-old Black man, joined relatives and friends for a family fish fry at a home on Cow Head Road in the Hemingway area of Williamsburg County, South Carolina. The gathering was meant to be an ordinary weekend get-together, with people outside the house enjoying food and each other’s company, when the mood shifted abruptly and permanently.
Before the night was over, gunfire shattered the quiet of the rural community, and Hanna was fatally wounded at the scene, later remembered in public records as having been lost to gun violence that day in Hemingway.
Deputies from the Williamsburg County Sheriff’s Office were called to the residence after reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found three people suffering from gunshot wounds: one already beyond saving and two others badly injured. Emergency responders transported one surviving victim by ambulance, while another had been taken to a hospital in a personal vehicle, a frantic scramble that underscored the chaos that followed the shots. Because of the large, emotional crowd that formed in the wake of the violence, deputies requested backup from multiple surrounding agencies, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division was brought in to assist with the investigation.
In the days that followed, investigators pieced together a picture of what they say happened outside the home during the gathering. According to their account, the victims were outside when they were confronted by three young men—Javontae Pressley, Comaine Pressley, and Dominick Markell Graham—one or more of whom had a gun. Words turned into a struggle, and in that struggle, the victim who died was shot multiple times. Another victim was shot in the leg and later found in a shed on the property, while Pressley himself was also struck by gunfire during the confrontation, further illustrating how quickly the situation spun out of control.
Investigators say the violence did not end with the last shot. Autumn Spring Perkins, who was at the fish fry, allegedly helped Pressley, Pressley, and Graham flee, driving them away from Cow Head Road as law enforcement descended on the scene. At the same time, a relative, Jeffery Comane Pressley, was accused of trying to mislead deputies by giving false information in an effort to secure a ride away from the residence, behavior that would later lead to additional charges. The combination of the deadly confrontation, the frantic efforts to escape, and the alleged attempts to deceive authorities added layers of complexity to what had begun as a family event.
By early April 2024, the Williamsburg County Sheriff’s Office announced a series of arrests linked to the shooting. Javontae Pressley, 18, of Scranton; Comaine Pressley, 22, of Scranton; and Dominick Markell Graham, 19, of Darlington, were each charged with murder, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm at a person, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Perkins, 19, of Darlington, was charged as an accessory after the fact of a felony, while 42-year-old Jeffery Comane Pressley of Nesmith was charged with giving false information to law enforcement in connection with the incident.
Even with those arrests, the deeper “why” behind the shooting remained elusive. Law enforcement repeatedly noted that they had not identified a clear motive for the eruption of violence at the fish fry, despite the number of people present and the extended family ties involved. Public reporting on the case centers on the night of the shooting and the subsequent charges; it does not yet detail how the cases against the accused have unfolded in court or whether any have gone to trial or resulted in convictions. What is firmly documented is that the gunfire on Cow Head Road left one young life permanently gone, two others wounded, and an entire community struggling to understand how a simple family gathering could end in such devastating loss.
