Arieyelle Coulette, 27, was killed by gunfire in Sumter, South Carolina, in the early morning hours of May 9, 2026. She was a Sumter High School graduate who worked at Volvo Car US Operations in Ridgeville and was remembered by family and friends as a devoted mother to her young daughter, Nariah. Around 2:15 a.m. police got a report of shots fired on Carolina Avenue and a nearby house was struck. Moments later a woman identified as Coulette was brought to Prisma Health Tuomey in a private vehicle with a gunshot wound and later died.

Investigators determined the shooting occurred when Coulette was a passenger in a car that was struck by gunfire from another vehicle; no other injuries were reported. Two suspects were arrested in neighboring Lee County: 19-year-old Elijah Handy of Bishopville and 28-year-old Dorein Antwon Vereen-Price, who had ties to Florence and Longs. Both were charged with murder and booked into the Sumter County Detention Center; Handy also faced a Lee County weapons charge. The motive remains under investigation.

Does anyone who was in the Sumter or Bishopville area that night have information about vehicles or people seen near Carolina Avenue around 2:15 a.m. on May 9?