Sunday slaying startles nearby churchgoers – One Hartsville man dead, another charged in Pine Ridge shooting
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Pine Ridge Holiness Church pastor Randall Harrelson and his congregation didn’t hear the gunfire a few hundred feet away from their Darlington County church.
Victim Desmond Coe
“We didn’t hear the gunshot because we had somebody singing” during the church’s Memorial Day weekend Sunday-morning services on May 26, Harrelson told the News & Press. “We think it happened about 11:30,” right in the middle of services.
Just down the highway from the church near Hartsville, a 24-year-old Hartsville man had been killed outside a Markette convenience store at West Bobo Newsome Highway and West Old Camden Road.
The victim, Desmond Coe, had been on a motorcycle in the road when he was shot. Officials said Coe “retreated” to the Markette after he was hit, leaving his motorcycle behind.
When the 40 or so parishoners at the nearby church left the building, they walked out onto the remnants of a crime scene, with the fallen motorcycle roped off with yellow tape and backed-up traffic on Bobo Newsome Highway beginning to be cleared out.
It was “scary” and strange to face a homicide case on a bright, hot Sunday morning outside church, Harrelson said. “You don’t know if it’s a random shooting. … You just don’t know. When (the parishoners) were walking out the door, we told them to be careful.”
Suspect Marqueze Robinson
The Darlington County Sheriff’s Office soon released a video-camera image of a “person of interest” in the case who was said to be driving a red car. Harrelson said knowing that deputies had a potential suspect so quickly, and knowing that the killing did not appear to be totally random, seemed to lessen area residents’ anxiety.
On May 29, law-enforcement officers charged a Hartsville man in the slaying.
Marqueze Robinson, 21, was charged with murder, Darlington County Sheriff Tony Chavis said in a news release. He said additional charges were expected.
Robinson remains in the Darlington County jail after a judge denied him bond.
The Sheriff’s Office said investigators believe that the two men knew each other and that the killing was not random.
After Robinson’s arrest, someone posted on his Facebook page: “Praying for both family! … Prison and the Graveyard is winning. We just lost 2 black Kings, one to the prison system and another to the graveyard. We got to do better. As black mens, (sic) we got to learn to walk away and live to see another day. Both of y’all was young with your whole life ahead (of) you. Jealous, hate and pride get us every time.”
Coe’s mother, Ruby Coe, told WBTW-TV: “I was out relaxing when I got the disturbing news. Someone hit on my door and said that about my son. It seems like a nightmare. I was like I need to wake up again because this hurts.”
Last Friday, the Sheriff’s Office said it was seeking another suspect in the slaying of Coe. Reneka Shane Brown, 26, of Hartsville, has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder. Investigators say Brown allowed her vehicle to be operated in the commission of a homicide and tried to hide the vehicle.
In another incident that was being investigated by the Sheriff’s Office, a 61-year-old Hartsville-area man was found dead from a gunshot wound at his home May 24.
Travis Warren Stevenson was pronounced dead at the scene on North Center Road, and Darlington County Coroner Todd Hardee ruled it a homicide.
Stevenson’s funeral services were being handled by Young & Young Funeral Home of Hartsville. One mourner wrote on the funeral home’s website: “He was always a joy to be around and he always had jokes to tell.”