Staff report
Sunday, January 1, 2012
A 24-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman are dead and the woman's mother remains in serious condition after a domestic dispute escalated into an apparent murder-suicide in North Charleston Friday night.
Kevin Drayton and Desma Doctor were pronounced dead at MUSC Hospital, according to the Charleston County coroner's office. Both died of gunshot wounds; Drayton's was self-inflicted, police said.
A North Charleston police spokesman would not release Doctor's mother's name, but the woman listed at the address where the shootings took place is Delaine Doctor, and an MUSC spokeswoman confirmed that a woman by that name was in serious condition at the hospital Saturday afternoon.
The trouble began around 6 p.m. Friday. Officers were dispatched to a house in the 2100 block of Victory Lane, a dirt road just north of the intersection of Midland Park Road and Rivers Avenue, police spokesman Spencer Pryor said.
Inside a house along the dirt road, they found three people suffering from gunshot wounds, Pryor said.
According to witnesses, Drayton came to the house looking for Desma Doctor. They got into a verbal confrontation that led to him pulling out a handgun and shooting her.
Doctor's mother entered the room and tried to get between them when she was shot, Pryor said. Drayton then turned the gun on himself, Pryor said.
At the scene Friday night, crime tape stretched between fences, some of which still bore holiday decorations. A hand-painted sign at a nearby home read: "Jesus is the Reason ... Be thankful God is Good."
Neighbors turned down requests for interviews. At about 8:45 p.m., a man standing on the dirt road wailed loudly and said he was going to "get" somebody.
Several people posted messages about Desma Doctor on Twitter Saturday, but none responded to messages seeking more information about the deceased.
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