Midlands man found in car crash was a homicide victim, SC coroner says

Noah Feit
·2 min read
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A Midlands man whose body was found in a Jan. 20 crash where a car flipped over wasn’t killed by the collision, the Saluda County Coroner’s Office said Monday.

After performing an autopsy, Coroner Keith Turner said that Alex K. Donaldson’s cause of death was from a gunshot wound.

The 26-year-old Orangeburg resident’s death has been ruled a homicide, the coroner’s office said.

A search is underway for two men wanted for killing Donaldson, the Saluda County Sheriff’s Office said.

Arrest warrants were issued for both Bernard Gilliam Jr. and Tridarin Weaver on charges of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, Sheriff Josh Price said Monday.

Information about how Gilliam and Weaver were connected to Donaldson’s death was not available, but Price said the sheriff’s office is working with the U.S. Marshals Service and South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s respective fugitive task forces to find both Gilliam and Weaver.

There was no word on a motive for the shooting.

The investigation began after the Jan. 20 crash. The single-vehicle collision happened in Saluda County at about 10 p.m., said Master Trooper Gary Miller of the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

A 2007 Nissan Altima was driving east on May Branch Road near the intersection with May Road when the car ran off the right shoulder, according to Miller. The Nissan then hit a mailbox and crashed into a ditch, causing it to flip over. The driver was dead, Miller said.

Miller said the driver was the only person in the car and no other injuries were reported.

Donaldson was identified as the occupant of the passenger car involved in the crash, according to the coroner’s office.

Minutes prior to receiving a 911 call about the crash, the sheriff’s office got another 911 call in reference to shots fired in the area of May Branch Road, Price said.

The death continues to be investigated by the sheriff’s office, the coroner’s office, and the Highway Patrol.

Anyone with any information on Gilliam and Weaver’s whereabouts, or the shooting, is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 864-445-2112, CrimeStoppers at 888-CRIME-SC or submit an online tip.