MANNING, S.C. — Investigators say a report of gunfire led them to a crying baby and two adults who were dead.
The Clarendon County Sheriff's Office said deputies along with officers from the Manning Police Department were first called to Westwood Apartments on Westwood Drive just before midnight on Wednesday where witnesses said they had heard gunshots coming from inside one of the apartments.
Deputies attempted to make contact with the people inside but were met only with the sounds of a child crying. From there, they made entry into the apartment and found two people, a man and a woman, dead in the living room and an infant nearby.
Authorities said the child was unharmed and taken to the emergency medical services personnel in the parking lot.
Based on witness statements and what investigators have since learned that a man and woman, believed to be the deceased - 32-year-old Dezmond A. Mitchell and 25-year-old Nakita Monet Baxter - were heard arguing in the upstairs apartment a short time before the gunfire was heard.
Investigators said Mitchell and Baxter were in a relationship and that they currently believe the shooting was a murder followed by a suicide.
