In the early morning of December 20, 2017, 23-year-old Trevonne Judge was shot and killed outside the Black Pearl nightclub on Broad River Road in Columbia, South Carolina. The confrontation began inside the club after money belonging to an entertainer was reported stolen; that dispute spread into the parking lot around 3:00 a.m. and escalated into an exchange of gunfire that also killed Judge’s older brother, 26-year-old Torance Peoples. Witnesses said multiple people fired simultaneously; officers recovered weapons and ballistics linked those firearms to wounds suffered by surviving participants.

Authorities arrested Jumaane Evins on petit larceny for the alleged theft, but prosecutors reviewed witness statements, ballistics, and other evidence and concluded in January 2018 that mutual combat or self-defense made murder charges unlikely. Two other men, including Marcus Robinson and Travontay Myers, were wounded; Myers later sought medical care in Charlotte, North Carolina. Judge was a Lugoff-Elgin High School honors student and former football linebacker, held an associate degree in business administration from Midlands Technical College, worked for the City of Columbia, and left two children.