On Saturday, January 10, 2026, at around 12:30 a.m., the Charleston Police Department received a complaint of gunfire in the West Ashley area. When police arrived on Tripe Street, they saw a vehicle parked in the street. Ashlyn Brianna Burkett, 28, was inside. She had been shot several times and was declared dead at the spot.
They swiftly concluded that Burkett had been “specifically targeted” and that the gunshot was not random. The same day, investigators carried out a search warrant at a Tripe Street home as a crucial early lead. Antonio Jamal Kelly, 33, was found inside the house during that search.
Kelly was not detained for the crime at that time. Rather, he was detained on a separate, ongoing domestic abuse warrant from 2025. He posted a $5,000 bond on the domestic violence charge and was freed later that day, January 10, according to prison records. Warrants for Kelly’s arrest on counts of murder and possessing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime were issued once probable cause was established. But Kelly was no longer in South Carolina by this point.
Antonio Jamal Kelly was apprehended by the Charleston Police Department’s Warrants Unit in Jacksonville, Florida, on Thursday, January 15, 2026, with help from the U.S. Marshals Service. He is being detained there as he waits to be extradited back to South Carolina to answer to the allegations.
Ashlyn Burkett’s family is crushed by her passing. She had three little girls and was a devoted mother. To help the kids, her family has started a GoFundMe page, saying they are “devastated beyond words” and finding it difficult to deal with the “profound loss.”
Police have also offered information for individuals who could be in danger since the victim and suspect had a domestic connection in the past. The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or law enforcement should be contacted by anybody who is experiencing intimate partner violence, according to their news release.
