3 slain in shooting

WALTERBORO -- Ruby Kittrell was getting ready for work Monday night when a staccato burst crackled through the air -- Pop! Pop! Pop! -- like a string of a firecrackers going off.

Kittrell's front door swung open as she ran toward the noise. A young man stumbled in, crying that he had been shot. Then she heard her daughter Aleshia screaming from outside, calling her baby's name.

Kittrell raced outside and found her 20-month-old granddaughter, Shaniyah Burden, lying in the dirt. She turned the girl over. A bullet had torn through the toddler's head. She lay motionless.

Around them, eight others lay wounded and bleeding from a drive-by shooting outside Kittrell's low-slung bungalow at the corner of Gerideau and McDaniel streets. Three of the victims, including Shaniyah, didn't make it. They died before the night was over.

Kittrell lost not only her granddaughter but her 21-year-old son, Christopher Powell, and her brother, Charles "Bubba Dog" Kittrell, 45.

Two others remained hospitalized Tuesday, including Aleshia Kittrell. She was shot in her arm, leg and back while trying to shield her baby from the bullets, family members said.

"Whoever did this took a big part of me," Ruby Kittrell said, choking back tears.

Her aunt, Ella Adams, agreed. "They killed a whole family."

The State Law Enforcement Division and the Walterboro Police Department are investigating the deadly shooting, the worst in recent memory in this small city in rural Colleton County.

Walterboro police Maj. Ken Dasen said that authorities were looking for a black BMW with one headlight out. Investigators released little other information, and no suspects had been identified by late Tuesday.

Some relatives and neighbors blamed the shooting on gang activity, which has fueled a tide of violence in this sparsely populated region in recent years. Sheriff's investigators have identified some 20 gangs operating in Colleton County, each with about 20 members.

Authorities were mum about possible gang connections to the Gerideau Street slayings.

About 20 people had gathered at Kittrell's home Monday night to play cards, grill food and watch the Steelers-Broncos game on television. Her home often played host to such gatherings. The crowd was upbeat, the mood light.

Around 10 p.m., a dark vehicle cruised up to the home and someone opened fire with what sounded like an automatic weapon, witnesses said. The gunfire came quick and heavy, raining bullets on the crowd, they said.

"It must have been a machine gun," said Shaniyah's great-grandmother, 69-year-old Bessie Kittrell, who was in her bedroom when the gunfire erupted. "There were so many (gunshots) I couldn't count them."

Bessie Kittrell rushed outside and saw her son, Charles, and Shaniyah lying wounded. "When I walked out the door, I knew she was dead," she said. "The baby was on the ground and I said, 'Lord Jesus, have mercy.' "

Neighbor Donell Daniels, 32, came running when he heard the barrage. People at the house seemed frozen, as if in shock.

"Everybody was just stuck, man. Everybody was just paused. It's like they couldn't even move," he said.

His first instinct was to get help for the baby. He grabbed her limp body, jumped into his car and sped toward the Colleton Medical Center, squealing around turns and running red lights along the way.

"I snatched the baby up and started praying, saying, 'Lord, don't let nothing happen to her. She ain't nothing but a baby.' " Daniels said he thought she still had a chance because he heard her gasp.

He arrived at the hospital within minutes. It was too late.

Charles Kittrell, a bachelor and handyman who did odd jobs, never made it to the hospital. He was pronounced dead at the scene, county Corner Richard Harvey said.

Powell died at Medical University Hospital in Charleston, Harvey said. He was a manager at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Walterboro and was the father of a 6-month-old boy, according to Adams.

He was found on the steps of the home after the shooting, as if he was trying to run inside to escape the gunfire, relatives said.

Police did not release the names of the other victims of the shooting. One man was said to be hospitalized in Columbia with serious wounds, but his name and condition was unavailable Tuesday.

Under a slate gray sky, relatives, neighbors and friends gathered at a playground near the home Tuesday morning, trying to make some sense of what happened.

Some took comfort in talking about their pain. Others, like Shaniyah's father, Lawrence Burden, were too overcome with grief. He sat on a wooden rail at the park's edge, his head in his hands, silent.

One relative wailed inconsolably after learning of the killings. Weeping, he slammed a "No Trespassing" sign into the hard earth again and again until other family members led him away. Others were more subdued, stopping to leave flowers, candles and teddy bears at the home.

Over and over, people described the family as good, hard-working people who didn't bother anyone.

Family members said they believe a local gang is responsible for the shooting, though they don't know why a gang would target any of the victims. It seems as though everyone in and around Walterboro has a tale to tell about senseless violence happening to them or someone they know.

Pam Overton, a relative of the Kittrells, said her house was shot up about three years ago, and police have yet to charge anyone. "It's happening all the time," Overton said. "This is ridiculous, and it's over stupid stuff."

Sharonda Mitchell, another relative, can attest to that. Her son was shot twice in the chest and once in the neck outside a restaurant in April by some men who wanted to rob him of the little money he had on him.

Ruby Kittrell said she hopes the killings of her relatives won't spark more violence in retaliation for the deaths. She appealed for people to remain calm and let "the Lord and the law handle it."

"Whoever did this to my family, I pray they come forward and turn themselves in," she said. "I hope they have a conscience because they've torn my family apart."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com. Reach Andy Paras at 937-5589 or aparas@postandcourier.com.