*NEW UPDATES*
· September 20: Investigative Editor, Javona Pringle, called and then emailed Spartanburg County Lieutenant, Kevin Bobo on updates regarding Evan Gaines’ case. Bobo responded via email stating there weren’t any updates at the time.
· October 29: Investigative Editor, Javona Pringle, spoke with Mrs. Ericka Holmes Carter, mother of Evan Gaines. 8 months after his murder and it seemed like there were little to no leads on the case, but Mrs. Carter said that investigators from Spartanburg county have been making progress. She said the driver of the vehicle was arrested in Columbia, SC and is now out on bond. Mrs. Carter said that Spartanburg county are looking to make more arrests soon as the case is still open.
· November 3: Balloon release held at Evan’s grave in celebration of his 23rd birthday.
· November 8: Investigative Editor, Javona Pringle, contacted lieutenant Kevin Bobo, from Spartanburg County and did not get a response. Pringle then contacted Murray Glenn from the Spartanburg solicitor’s office on updates regarding Gaines’ case which Glenn responded, “we don’t have any information to share at the moment.”
· March 26: Television and print news widely report throughout the day that Evan Jeffery Gaines, 22, was reported shot and killed Tuesday night, March 26, at Campus Edge Apartments, just yards away from USC Upstate’s campus.
· March 27: USC Upstate announced unnamed student shot and killed at an “off-campus location” after faculty, staff and students requested more information regarding their safety and increased law enforcement activity.
· Obituary for Evan Jeffery Gaines posted online by Leevy’s Funeral Home and the Columbia State April 2. USC Upstate has yet to acknowledge Gaines as the victim, Gaines’ obituary or additional campus and/ or Edge Apartments safety measures. Seven days separate Upstate administration’s vague announcement of a student killed at an unnamed “off-campus location”
· April 3: USC Upstate students remember Evan Jeffery Gaines with a banner at the hammocks near center of campus. Green ribbons are tied around the light posts with hashtags to memorialize Gaines. Eight days separate Upstate’s administration’s vague announcement of Gaines’ murder.
· April 3: Evan Jeffery Gaines memorial service in Columbia.
· April 3: “Communicating with our students clearly and often, genuinely and authentically, is essential.” University of South Carolina Harris Pastides at his last lecture on the Columbia campus. Eight days separate Upstate administration’s vague announcement of a student killed at an unnamed “off-campus location” and additional safety measures
· April 4: Upstate administration emails Upstate community it has hired three additional officers “dedicated patrolling residential communities” while still emphasizing Campus Edge and two others are privately owned.
· April 9: Evan Gaines will be granted a posthumous degree at spring commencement on May 7, USC Upstate announced. It will also award a posthumous degree to Jordane Bouchillon of Greenville, a senior who was killed in a car accident in the fall.
· April 12: Disappointed student organization leaders tell The Carolinian that Student Life resisted students organizing a GoFundMe page for Evan Gaines funeral expenses and reluctantly approved a vigil at the amphitheater.
· April 17: Student-led candlelight vigil held in amphitheater for Evan Gaines. Gaines family attends, and hundreds of students memorialize their beloved colleague.
· May 7: Evan Gaines, a student in the George Dean Johnson, Jr. College and Business and Economics was awarded his degree posthumously during Upstate’s graduation ceremonies. Gaines’ family, from Columbia, attended the event.
· August 11: As The Carolinian is wrapping up its back-to-school edition for Fall 2019, the Spartanburg County Sheriff Office, USC Upstate administration and Campus Edge Apartments have been mum on the case of Evan Gaines. There have been scattered unofficial reports but nothing formally to explain how, where, why the Upstate senior was shot and killed.