In the early hours of a Tuesday morning in Columbia, South Carolina, the life of 21-year-old Christopher Haynes was tragically cut short. On September 26, 2023, he and another man, 25-year-old Daeonte K. Lang, were found deceased from gunshot wounds outside a third-floor apartment at the Greenbrier Apartments on Willow Oak Drive. Deputies from the Richland County Sheriff's Department responded to reports of a shooting at approximately 1 a.m. and discovered the two men on the ground.
Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
The initial investigation into the double homicide left authorities searching for answers, with no immediate information on a suspect or a motive for the shooting. For weeks, the case remained under active investigation as law enforcement appealed to the public for any information that could lead to an arrest. The community was left seeking justice for the two young men whose lives were violently ended.
A break in the case came when investigators identified 21-year-old Christian Joquan Irick as a suspect. On a Wednesday morning, law enforcement, including Richland County deputies, the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and South Carolina State University Campus Police, located and apprehended Irick on the campus of South Carolina State University. He was reportedly visiting a friend and was taken into custody without incident. Irick was subsequently charged with two counts of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. He was booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, where he was held without bond. Court records indicated that Irick was out on bond for previous, unrelated charges at the time of the fatal shooting.
