A block party on Winetta Street in Laurens, South Carolina, turned deadly on May 20, 2017, when gunfire broke out among a crowd of more than 300 people. Twenty-six-year-old Roydrecilous Irby, known as Moe, was struck multiple times by a small-caliber firearm, taken to a nearby hospital, and died that same day. Another attendee, 43-year-old Sidney Speaks, was also killed in the chaos, shot by a high-caliber weapon.

Investigators from the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division described a chaotic scene with multiple people discharging guns, which complicated efforts to determine who fired the fatal rounds. Authorities identified Johnny Lee Pyles Jr. as a primary suspect and obtained a warrant; officers located him in Fountain Inn, and he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound when they entered the residence. Several others were arrested afterward on charges including breach of peace of a high and aggravated nature, assault and battery in the first degree, and obstructing justice.

Who in the community remembers that night or has information about the shootings?