Highway 21 Bypass in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Officers arriving shortly after 11 p.m. found Howard with a serious gunshot wound amid a large crowd; he was taken to Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill and died the following day.

Authorities charged 23-year-old Anquante El-Malik Lemel Watts with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime after surveillance video of the incident surfaced. Prosecutors said at least eight shots were fired in the crowded lot, while the defense argued Watts acted in self-defense, invoking South Carolina’s Protection of Persons and Property Act.

In March 2023 a judge granted Watts immunity from prosecution, finding he was peaceably in his vehicle when three men charged at it and that he reasonably believed deadly force was necessary; the murder and weapon charges were dismissed and prosecutors did not plan to appeal. Sy’Veon Dy’Marize Howard, known as Bally, was born March 23, 1995, and played basketball and football from childhood, earning a scholarship to Paine College after graduating from Rock Hill High School.

Did anyone in the Fort Mill area witness the shooting or know more about what happened that night?