Woman killed by boyfriend who turned gun on himself, SC coroner says
Two people are dead in a homicide-suicide, according to the Aiken County Coroner’s Office.
A South Carolina man shot his girlfriend before leaving their residence and going to a nearby home where he killed himself, Coroner Darryl Ables said Monday in a news release.
An argument, that Ables called a domestic dispute, led to the shooting, according to the release.
It was just before 9 p.m. Sunday when Ables said his office was called to two homes on Maple Street in Salley. The shootings happened earlier that night, Ables told The State.
The body of Thembi Chalmers, 43, was found at the home she shared with Levi Bonnett on Maple Street, according to the release.
Less than 100 feet down the road, and within a half mile of the Salley Town Police Department, the 45-year-old Bonnett was found at a separate Maple Street home, the coroner said.
Bonnett’s body was found inside a home that belongs to a friend of his, Ables said.
Chalmers died at the scene from a gunshot wound, according to the release. An autopsy in Newberry is scheduled for her, according to the coroner.
No autopsy is planned for Bonnett, Ables said. But the coroner’s office is waiting on results of toxicology tests performed on Bonnett, according to the release.
Prior to his death, criminal charges were pending against Bonnett for resisting arrest in 2018, and a weapons charge from 2019 when he was locked up for using a firearm while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Aiken County court records show.
Along with the coroner’s office, Salley Police and the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office responded to the shooting.
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