Crime & Safety

Update: 19-Year-Old Charged with Murder in Lexington Shooting

Deputies have made an arrest.

Update, 5:18 p.m.: Deputies arrested a 19-year-old man who they say shot and killed a 56-year-old man Wednesday morning at his home on Emma Drive.

Jeffrey O'Neal Kight Jr. of 111 Emma Drive is charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies say around 6:45 a.m., Kight fired one round from a shotgun through a glass window outside William Rush Falls' home at 115 Emma Drive. The shotgun round broke through the window, hit Falls in the face and neck and killed him, according to the sheriff's department. 

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A surveillance camera system that Falls had installed outside his home shows that Kight was standing in the backyard of Falls’ home at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to the sheriff's department. The video also shows him standing at the side window just before the shotgun was fired from that location. 

When detectives executed a serach warrant at Kight's house, they found one shotgun and one expended shotgun shell in his bedroom, Sheriff James Metts said. Ballistics tests will be conducted to determine whether the shotgun was used in the fatal shooting of Falls.

Kight was booked at the Lexington County Detention Center around 11:48 p.m. Wednesday. He is being held there awaiting a bond hearing. 

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Under South Carolina law, a circuit judge has to conduct a bond hearing for Kight in general sessions court because murder carries a punishment of life in prison, Metts said. The 11th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office has not yet scheduled a bond hearing for Kight.

Deputies are still investigating the motive for the fatal shooting.

The sheriff asks anyone with information about Kight or the fatal shooting of Falls to contact the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at 803-785-8230 or Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC. 

Update, 4:20 p.m.: Deputies arrested a 19-year-old man who they say shot and killed a 56-year-old man Wednesday at his home on Emma Drive.

Jeffrey O'Neal Kight Jr. is charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.

Authorities identified the 56-year-old man as William Rush Falls.

Original story: Lexington County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the death of a 56-year-old who was shot dead in his home, WIS-TV reports. 

Deputies responded to a possible disturbance Wednesday morning and discovered a body in a home on Emma Drive in Lexington. 

Authorities identified the man as William Rush Falls.

Deputies have made an arrest, according to the report.

Read more here

Patch will update this story as soon as more information is available. 


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