Shortly before midnight on January 24, 2019, 20-year-old Rakeem R. Jackson was found shot to death inside a vehicle parked near the intersection of Valley Avenue and Shady Lane in New Ellenton, South Carolina. Witnesses described gunfire that night as extreme enough to compare to a war zone. The Aiken County Sheriff’s Office investigated, but the case stalled with few leads and no suspects publicly identified.

Rakeem’s family has been deeply affected by the unresolved death. His mother, Kristie Green, has spoken about her anguish and had previously expressed concern about the company Rakeem kept. The family’s situation was further complicated when Rakeem’s brother, Denzel Deshawn Jackson, was later arrested in separate, unrelated murder investigations, and Kristie Green faced charges as an accessory after the fact in one of those separate cases. The person or persons who shot Rakeem have not been publicly identified.

If anyone in New Ellenton that night saw or heard anything that could help solve Rakeem’s murder, please come forward with information.