Man Charged with Killing Woman, Shooting Two Others

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — Wednesday night, what Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott described to be, a sometimes violent relationship came to an end. At a home on Burdock Road, deputies found a woman dead and a man injured. The suspect, John Corbett, is behind bars charged with murder. “We still have not broken that cycle that we’ve got in our community where, particularly, men think it’s okay to abuse their female partner or their wives; that it’s okay to solve a problem with them by taking their life,” said Sheriff Leon Lott, Richland County Sheriff’s Department. The female victim in the case, Akawandalis Byrd, was once accused of being the aggressor. “Ms. Byrd had recently been arrested for stabbing Mr. Corbett in a domestic violence-related incident where she was the aggressor and stabbed him,” said Lott. Executive Director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Sara Barber says, there are instances when the female is the aggressor, but most always it’s the male. “It’s a whole dynamic caught up in a culture that had made men be dominate over women for so long,” says Barber South Carolina is no stranger to domestic violence deaths. The Violence Policy Center ranks the state first in the nation for the number of women killed by men. “We don’t think there is a magical, easy solution. We think a part of making offenders more accountable is to make it impossible for them to legally possess or purchase firearms,” says Barber Crandall Sims reporting, “Just last week, South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell announced a new committee to look at Criminal Domestic Violence laws in the state. They will use the rest of this session to look at our laws, how we can improve, what other states are doing and what solutions we can implement here at home.” Harrell says, “The state has several vital areas we need to improve upon and that is why it is important this committee begin its work now.” Back to the Burdock Road incident, Corbett is charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.