Ronald A. Bonnette, 58, was killed in Columbia, South Carolina, on the evening of October 26, 2018. After returning from work as a painter, he was taking out his trash at the Petan Apartments on Beatty Road at about 8 p.m. when a shootout between rival gangs erupted. Bonnette was struck by a gunshot wound to the torso and died; at least 25 rounds were fired in the exchange, and stray bullets hit three vehicles and two occupied apartments.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department arrested three teenage suspects in the days after the shooting. Dy’quan Monroe King, 17, Messiah Denicholas Cornish, 18, and Elijah Karim Gilmore, 18, were booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center and charged with murder in Bonnette’s death. Additional charges included possession of a weapon during a violent crime for all three, unlawful carrying of a pistol and discharging firearms into a dwelling for Dy’quan King, and discharging a firearm into a dwelling for Messiah Cornish. King was also implicated in a separate double homicide that occurred days earlier.

Bonnette was an innocent bystander performing a routine task when the violence occurred. Did anyone at the Petan Apartments that night see how the confrontation began or who brought the shooters to that location?