Sumter officers charge 2 with murder, accuse 2 for roles in fatal shooting
Two men were charged in the killing of a Mayesville man while two others were charged with accessory in connection to a fatal shooting on Broad Street Friday.
Police reports indicate Alki Williams, 27, was driving just after 5 p.m. on Broad Street when a white vehicle drove up beside him between Milton and Morgan Avenues and opened fire, killing Williams. He was pronounced dead on scene where his car stopped in a business parking lot.
Christopher Fordham, 23, of Sumter, and his girlfriend, the owner of the white car police say was involved in the shooting, were initially charged Friday with possession with intent to distribute marijuana after drugs and money were found in a residence, said Tonyia McGirt, public information officer for the Sumter Police Department. McGirt said officers determined the girlfriend did not take part in and had no knowledge of the shooting but that Fordham and Travion Blackwell, 21, of Manning, were found to be the supposed driver and passenger inside the white car as the shots were fired. Both were charged with murder on Tuesday.
Officers also think Fordham and Blackwell received help from associates after the shooting.
Christopher Malek Mickens, 24, of Sumter, who reportedly provided the suspects with another vehicle, was charged Monday with accessory after the fact, McGirt said. Raishard York, 21, of Manning, who reportedly created an alibi for one of the suspects, was charged Tuesday with accessory after the fact.
All were booked at the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center.
An investigation is continuing as the Sumter Police Department work to determine what led to the shooting. McGirt said she could not share the suspects' motives or relationship to Williams at this time.
This incident marked the fifth homicide to occur this year in Sumter County, according to Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker. Those include an infant who was born early by an emergency surgery when his mother was critically injured in a November shooting, a 21-year-old who was found shot in his vehicle on Bultman Drive, a 48-year-old who was stabbed following an argument and a 36-year-old who was killed in an apparent domestic violence incident, according to law enforcement reports.
Government agencies consider different incidents as homicides, as the Sumter Police Department does not count the infant's death as a 2021 homicide, McGirt said. It was counted retroactively last year because the shooting occurred in November.
Other homicides that were reported this year — the death of two babies (unrelated) that officials say each had drugs in their systems — were considered as 2020 incidents while arrests and charges were made this year.