Arrest made in killing of 17-year-old Lower Richland basketball player

Deputies have charged a man with murder in the shooting death of a Lower Richland High School basketball player last week.

Shytori Nikia Davenport, 21, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his workplace and charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, the sheriff's department said Thursday morning.

Davenport is charged in the shooting death of Amon Rice, 17, on May 10.

Rice and a second man were shot on Greenlakes Drive near Unity Missionary Baptist Church in Hopkins. Rice died in the hospital two days later. The second victim suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

The teen's mother said he was standing up for a younger classmate when he was shot.

“He was helping a little boy in the ninth grade. He kept telling him, ‘You got to stand up,’” says Antrinette Le’teas Means, Rice’s mother. “He was telling him he, ‘Couldn’t let these kids bully you.’ … He was telling them [the ridiculers], ‘You can’t fight this little boy.’”

Investigators have said a group of individuals met to settle a dispute, but they have not confirmed that it was a confrontation over bullying.

Rice was a rising senior at Lower Richland High School and a member of the varsity basketball team.

Davenport was arrested by Columbia police in February 2016 on charges of first-degree burglary, kidnapping, pointing and presenting a firearm and third-degree assault and battery, according to State Law Enforcement Division records.

He faced up to life in prison on the first-degree burglary charge. A grand jury indicted him on all the charges; however, he pleaded guilty to the assault charge, which is a misdemeanor, and the remaining charges were dismissed, records show.

He faces 30 years to life in prison, if convicted on the murder charge in Rice's death. The weapon charge carries up to five years in prison.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

This story was originally published May 17, 2018 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Arrest made in killing of 17-year-old Lower Richland basketball player."