Stop-the-violence event latest step by mother of Berkeley County shooting victim to help solve case

A third year has passed without solid clues about who shot Ariel Morgan to death in front of hundreds of people at a party near Moncks Corner.

The 19-year-old’s slaying could have been forgotten by most residents, like many of the 190 other homicides in the tri-county that have gone unsolved this century.

But Morgan’s mother won’t let that happen.

Undaunted by the lack of arrests, Kendra Morgan-Stevens said she continues fighting to keep her daughter’s memory alive through an event that brings together law enforcement and community members. It’s a gathering meant to show people who hold the keys to solving the case that she will never forget and neither should they.

It’s a form of therapy that has helped Morgan-Stevens cope. But it’s also a way to eat at the conscience of those who know something about the death.

“I feel like sometimes I should stop,” Morgan-Stevens said. “But in the middle of the night, she says, ‘Mommy, you have to do this or that.’ It’s the bond I still have with her that keeps her name alive. I know that’s what she would want me to do.”

The four-hour “Awareness to Senseless Gun Violence” event will begin at 1:30 p.m.June 10 in Stratford High School at 951 Crowfield Blvd. in Goose Creek. There will be jump castles, face-painting, vendors and music. Columbia attorney Bakari Sellers, a former state lawmaker and frequent CNN commentator, will speak.

Any money raised will go toward two $500 college scholarships that Morgan-Stevens has started to hand out annually to students who write essays about the difference between a witness and a snitch, the street slang for people who cooperate with authorities.

Morgan was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight that broke out June 7, 2014, during a block party on Tish Lane. She had no part in the argument that sparked the violence.

Before the party, she had spoken out on social media against such violence, expressing fears about what could happen at the gathering.

Investigators from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office have spent the past three years chasing down leads, but none have panned out. Capt. Annie Jackson, who heads the agency’s community outreach efforts, said Kendra-Morgan’s dogged work to keep the shooting in the public eye could be crucial to eventually solving the case.

In the past year, Morgan-Stevens also saw to it that the county install memorial signs on a street in the community where her daughter was slain.

“Her work keeps Ariel’s murder in the forefront, so people don’t forget that we still need help solving this case,” Jackson said. “But it also lets young people know how they can prevent gun violence.”

People with information about the slaying could be eligible for an $11,000 reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymously at 843-554-1111.

“It has turned into a cold case,” Morgan-Stevens said, “but I won’t lose hope.”