On the night of December 20, 2025, a verbal dispute in the 800 block of Polo Road in Columbia, South Carolina, escalated into deadly violence. Deputies from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department responded at about 11:00 p.m. after reports of a shooting and found 30-year-old Brian Gary Barrett suffering multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body. Barrett was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arrival; the coroner identified him as a Columbia resident.

Investigators say the altercation began as a verbal argument between Barrett and another man, turned physical, and ended when the other man produced a firearm and shot Barrett several times before fleeing. A suspect was tracked to a location about 60 miles away and, on December 21, 2025, 44-year-old Charles McCants was arrested in Hartsville. McCants was charged in Richland County with murder, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

If anyone saw the confrontation on Polo Road that night or has information about what led to the dispute, please share what is known.