Vonkeith Toland told Lexington County Sheriff’s deputies that he had wanted to sell a vehicle so he placed a notice on craigslist, a free online message board. The 33-year-old Pelion resident was contacted by a possible buyer and arranged to meet Saturday afternoon in North, South Carolina. Toland took his kid- brother, Tycus Toland, 29, with him to the meeting.

Two men driving a silver or light blue sports utility vehicle followed the Tolands back to the elder Toland’s home at 688 Bushberry Road in Pelion to look at the vehicle. But , for a reason that the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating , the encounter turned violent. When sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, they found Tycus Toland dead in the front yard from a gunshot wound to the upper body and his brother also shot in the upper body.

Toland told deputies he and his brother were shot shortly after the four arrived back at his house.

Witnesses who saw the suspects in North described them as a heavy-set African American with dreadlocks standing about 5-feet-8-inches tall and a thin African American with short-cropped hair standing about 6-feet-3-inches tall.

The older Toland brother is recovering from his injuries at a local hospital.

-- Rachael Myers Lowe