Police increased patrols as classmates and relatives remembered the 17-year-old student and investigators continued searching for a suspect.
GAFFNEY, S.C. — Balloons and other memorial items appeared Thursday at the school bus stop where 17-year-old Jomiltron Sentell Fair Jr. was fatally shot, as his family and classmates mourned a high school senior killed during the first week of classes.
Fair, a student at Gaffney High School, was remembered by friends by the nickname “June bug.” His family said he had hoped to graduate early and was looking forward to becoming a father. A balloon release was planned for Saturday evening at Granard Courts Apartments as the community began marking his death while the criminal investigation continued.
The shooting happened shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday near the 500 block of West Rutledge Avenue. Cherokee County Coroner Dennis Fowler said Fair walked from his apartment across the street to the bus stop and was about to board when another male approached him.
Authorities said Fair and the other person had a brief confrontation before Fair was shot. He died at the scene despite lifesaving efforts by police. Investigators said surveillance cameras on the school bus captured the person who fired the shot leaving the scene and entering a waiting vehicle driven by someone else.
The shooting unfolded in view of students beginning an ordinary school morning. About 15 students were on the bus, officials said. A 12-year-old student who knew Fair told local reporters that he regularly joked with other students at the stop and that she and Fair became friends after she began riding the bus the previous school year.
The killing shook Granard Courts, the apartment community near the bus stop. Residents described the neighborhood as a place where they had not expected such violence. One mother whose daughter was at the stop described the fear of having her child run home immediately after the shooting and the grief of realizing another family had lost a child.
Community officials also focused on the students who witnessed the shooting. Fowler called Fair’s death an absolute tragedy and expressed concern for both the teenager’s family and the children who were on the bus. Gaffney Mayor Lyman Dawkins III said the community was hurting after what he described as senseless violence.
The Cherokee County School District kept schools operating while law enforcement increased security. Gaffney Police Chief Gerald Knight said extra patrols would be stationed at the shooting location and around local schools for the rest of the week. Officers were present Thursday as students again boarded a bus at the stop where Fair was killed.
The school year had begun only two days before the shooting. Cherokee County students returned to classrooms Monday, Aug. 10. District officials said after the killing that law enforcement was actively handling the case and that no broader danger to schools or students had been identified based on the information available at that time.
Fair’s death also prompted a multiagency investigation. Gaffney police are receiving assistance from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, including its Department of Child Fatalities, which is routinely called when someone younger than 18 dies unexpectedly or as a result of violence. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office has also assisted.
By Thursday, the investigation had expanded into a search for a suspect elsewhere in the Gaffney area. Authorities had not publicly announced an arrest or a motive in Fair’s killing. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday, while Fair’s family planned the Saturday balloon release in his memory.
Author note: Last updated August 13, 2026.