WICHITA, Kan. — A Wichita man has been sentenced to 27.5 years in prison for a shooting at a party that left a South Carolina airman dead and three people injured.
Markeithen “Red” McClaine, 28, was sentenced Thursday in the July 27, 2019, death of 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Chancelor Williams, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, who was stationed at McConnell Air Force Base, The Wichita Eagle reported.
McClaine pleaded guilty in February to second-degree murder and three counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Williams, an aircraft fuel systems journeyman with the 22nd Maintenance Squadron, died after he was shot in the parking lot of Horizons East Apartments, said Wichita Police Officer Kevin Wheeler in a news release at the time.
Emergency crews were called to the apartment complex at around 2:05 a.m. after a 911 caller reported multiple shots had been fired. Police found Williams unresponsive in the parking lot, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other men, ages 21 and 22, and a 19-year-old woman were also shot and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said a crowd had gathered at the apartment complex ahead of an upcoming deployment. McClaine fired at least six shots after the car he was in was surrounded by party-goers, who eventually let the car drive away.
Col. Richard Tanner, commander of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing, said in a statement shortly after Williams’ death that the base was “deeply saddened by the loss of one of our airmen.”
“We come together as a community to support our families and all those affected by this tragic incident,” Tanner said.
