John Thomas III, a 24-year-old Black male from Columbia, Georgia, was killed in North Charleston, South Carolina, in the winter of 2024. His life ended following a violent encounter that began on a Saturday evening and concluded in a hospital early the next morning.
On the evening of January 27, 2024, just before 6:30 p.m., officers with the North Charleston Police Department were called to the 2800 block of Otranto Road for what was reported as a single-vehicle collision.
At the scene, they found a car that had crashed into a fence and a tree, causing live power lines to fall on top of it. Inside the vehicle, they discovered the driver, John Thomas III, bleeding from a gunshot wound to his hip. He was alive but gravely injured, with his eyes rolled up. Emergency responders transported him to Trident Medical Center for treatment. Despite medical efforts, Thomas succumbed to his injuries at 1:47 a.m. on Sunday, January 28. The Charleston County Coroner's Office confirmed his death was a homicide.
The North Charleston Police Department launched an intensive investigation. Within 48 hours of the initial call, detectives identified a suspect in the fatal shooting. On Monday, January 29, police located and arrested James Palmer Jr., 35, near Fairwind Drive in North Charleston.
Following his arrest, Palmer was charged with murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He was booked into the Al Cannon Detention Center. At the time of the incident, Palmer was reportedly free on bond from an August 2021 arrest for domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and two counts of assaulting a police officer. As of January 2024, the case against him was entering the legal system.
