Markel Maxwell

On the evening of May 7, 2021, Markel Maxwell, a 21-year-old Black man, drove his gold Chevrolet Malibu onto Parana Street in his hometown of North Charleston, South Carolina. He was planning to meet a friend around 8:30 p.m., but within seconds of turning onto the street, his car was sprayed with gunfire. Officers from the North Charleston Police Department responded to reports of the shooting and found Maxwell inside his vehicle, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation quickly focused on surveillance footage from businesses near the shooting. The video captured a man running from the area where investigators would later recover 17 shell casings. The man’s arm was extended, and he was pointing a firearm toward Parana Street. The gun’s slide was locked back, a sign that its magazine had been completely emptied. A firearms analyst from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed that all 17 rounds were fired from the same weapon. Using the surveillance footage, a detective identified the man as Antonio Bernard Grant.

About a month later, on June 8, 2021, Grant was arrested by a team that included the U.S. Marshals Task Force. He was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in connection with Markel Maxwell’s death. While out on bond, Grant fled the state and was later involved in a barricaded subject situation before being returned to custody in South Carolina.

Grant’s case proceeded to a four-day jury trial where the motive for the seemingly random attack was revealed. Prosecutors presented evidence showing that the killing was a tragic act of mistaken identity. Two days before Maxwell was killed, Grant had been involved in another shooting on Parana Street with individuals driving a gold-colored Chevrolet Malibu. When Grant saw Maxwell’s similar-looking car, he made what a prosecutor called a “deadly assumption” and opened fire. The state also introduced messages Grant sent an hour and a half after the murder, in which he attempted to pay a “spiritual advisor” to protect him from shooting charges. Grant testified in his own defense, admitting he went into hiding after the killing.

Following the trial, the Charleston County jury found Antonio Bernard Grant guilty of murder and the associated weapons charge. In December 2025, a judge sentenced him to 55 years in prison for the death of Markel Maxwell.