Birthday Celebration Ends With Two Dead at The Black Pearl Night Club

[gtxvideo vid=’e5TBvxgy’ thumb=’http://player.gtxcel.com/thumbs/e5TBvxgy.jpg’ vtitle=’Black Pearl Shooting’]

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO)- The lives of two young men were cut short outside of a night club early Wednesday morning. Now, authorities are looking to the community for help.

Deputies said just before 3 a.m. they found two dead bodies among a crowd of people at The Black Pearl on Broad River Road.

“Both were shot in the upper body. Right now we are trying to determine what took place and what happened,” Lt. Curtis Wilson said, with the Richland County Sheriff’s.

Richland County deputies are still investigating the shooting that took the lives of 26-year-old Torance Peoples and 23-year-old Trevonne Judge.

“We do know that there were two different factions shooting at each other. We do have one person we were able to locate hours later. We brought him in and are questioning this person right now,” Wilson said.

Friends on social media said the two victims were out celebrating People’s birthday. Deputies are calling on anyone who was present when shots rang out to provide more details.

“With a huge crowd out there, we know there are individuals that saw or heard what took place and even saw the shots being fired. We urge those individuals to come forward. You can even call Crimestoppers, you do not have to come forward to the Sheriff’s Department, call Crimestoppers with the information that you have and remain anonymous. If the information that you have leads to an arrest, that could mean cash for you,” Wilson said.

This shooting is yet another act of violence taking place in the county recently. Acts that Wilson said have to stop.

“Those days where individuals get into an argument and they fist fight and it’s over and they are friends the next day, it seems those days have gone by. Nowadays, it seems as though individuals get into an altercation and it’s automatically right to the gun. That’s something that needs to be addressed and something the sheriff is going to look at as well to see how we can curb this violence that is taking place,” Wilson said.

Authorities said major issues took place at the club over the last year, almost 30 incidents ranging from assaults to shootings being reported. County officials and deputies said they will continue to monitor The Black Pearl going forward.