An early morning fight at a party led to the killing of one man and the wounding of another.

At approximately 2:00am, law enforcement was called to the Hartford Community Center located on SC Highway 395 in the Hartford Section of Newberry County. An individual had rented the community center for a party. There were a large number of people at the party when an argument and scuffle took place. Several unknown participants in the fight along with other people went into a crowded parking lot, where several people began shooting. The end result was one person being shot in the leg and the another receiving a fatal gunshot wound. The wounded individual was transported to an area trauma center due to the severity of the wound.

At present little is known about suspects due to little cooperation coming from the participants at the party. “We cannot solve these senseless cases of violence unless people come forward and tell us what happened,” said Sheriff Lee Foster. “Someone has lost a loved one, a son, a brother, a friend and we had people refusing to cooperate. In fact, there were people there that were intimidating others not to cooperate. Put yourself in the victim’s family’s shoes and think about losing your loved one to an act of pure nonsense and not being afforded justice,” said Sheriff Foster.

Law enforcement from the Sheriff’s Office, Newberry City, Highway Patrol, Prosperity, SLED and Whitmire were called to help control, secure and protect the crime scene.
Coroner Laura Kneece will release the name of the shooting victim after positive identification has been made, cause of death, and family members are notified.

Anyone that is willing to cooperate and provide information in the identity the shooter should contact Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIMESC, leave a tip through our web site at www.newberrycountysheriff.com, or 803-321-2222.