On the morning of December 19, 2021, 24-year-old Jamal Jermaine Alston was found bloodied but alive, walking along S.C. Highway 66 near the Newberry–Laurens county line. He had multiple gunshot wounds and told deputies that he had picked up a white man and a white woman at a gas station; they shot him and took his car. Alston was taken to a trauma center and died later that day.

Investigators determined Alston had arranged a meeting online and drove to pick up 19-year-old Blaize Pedro Plaza and a female companion. After a brief drive, Plaza asked to pull over, then fired through locked doors when he returned to the vehicle. Alston fled into nearby woods while Plaza pursued and continued shooting. Plaza and the woman later burned Alston’s 2015 Honda Accord on Eaves Road in Union County; authorities linked the burned car to the victim.

Law enforcement from Newberry, Laurens and Union counties and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division identified Plaza as the primary suspect and took him into custody. He was charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and grand larceny; the woman corroborated the sequence of events. Did anyone in the area see Alston’s car or the vehicle burning on Eaves Road that night?