Michael Bryan Cooke was 41 when he was shot and killed on February 23, 2018, in North Charleston while working with his father, Charles Michael Cooke, refurbishing a home on Matipan Drive. The two men were carrying out plumbing work for a project intended to provide housing for a family in need when they were ambushed during an attempted robbery. Michael Cooke was pronounced dead at the scene; his father survived with serious wounds.

Cooke was remembered as a loving husband and father, a bi-vocational worship leader at Life Community Church, and the owner of Cooke Landscaping. Investigators from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office pursued leads that led them to a nearby high school, where they identified and arrested two 18-year-old suspects, Aaron Jordan White and Daquintez Jermont Gadsden. An affidavit says both entered the home intending to rob the Cookes, an altercation followed, both men were shot, and witnesses and the elder Cooke provided descriptions that matched the suspects; reports indicate one of the suspects confessed.

The community raised funds to support the Cooke family in the aftermath. If anyone knew Michael, his work, or was in the area that afternoon, please share any information that might help fill remaining gaps.