Man charged with double murder after being found on college campus in SC, cops say
A man was charged with two counts of murder Wednesday after he was found on a college campus in South Carolina, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said.
In addition to the murder charges, 21-year-old Christian Joquan Irick was also charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.
The charges are from a Sept. 26 shooting where Columbia residents Daeonte K. Lang, 25, and Christopher Haynes, 21, were killed, officials said.
At about 1 a.m. on Sept. 26, deputies responded to reports of a shooting at an apartment complex in the 1000 block of Willow Oak Drive, according to the release. That’s the Greenbrier Apartments in Columbia, near Exit 73 on Interstate 20, which is the junction with S.C. 277.
Deputies found the 21- and a 25-year-old’s bodies on the ground outside of a third-floor apartment, the sheriff’s department said. Both men died at the scene, according to the release.
No other injuries were reported.
Information about a motive for the shooting was not available.
Irick was taken into custody Wednesday at about 11:30 a.m. on the South Carolina State University campus, the sheriff’s department said.
Irick is not an S.C. State student and does not live on the campus, but was there visiting a friend, according to the release.
In addition to Richland County deputies, members of the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and South Carolina State University Campus Police assisted in the arrest, the sheriff’s department said.
Irick was taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, according to the release. No bond has been set and Irick remains behind bars, jail records show. The Hartsville resident is scheduled to return to court on the murder and weapons charges on Jan. 26, 2024, Richland County judicial records show.
Irick was out on bond when Lang and Haynes were fatally shot, according to court records. He’s still facing multiple drug charges from a June 26 arrest, court records show.
He’s also facing pending charges related to a hit-and-run collision from 2022, according to Darlington County court records.
“Another crime committed by someone out on bond,” Sheriff Leon Lott said in the release. “... Two more lives lost at the hands of a coward.”
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