ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Two South Carolina brothers have been sentenced for their parts in an incident that ended with gunfire inside a South Carolina hospital just a few years earlier.
Acting U.S. Attorney M. Rhett DeHart announced on Wednesday that 26-year-old Abrian Dayquan Sabb of Orangeburg and 23-year-old Darius Bernard Sabb of Georgetown had been sentenced for their connection to a 2019 shooting. For their varying roles in that violent day, one brother faces years in prison while the other is on probation.
It all started in April of 2019 when Abrian was in a domestic dispute, after which law enforcement responded and confiscated his gun. Later that day, however, prosecutors said he asked his brother Darius to go with him to a local gun dealer to purchase another.
They said Abrian provided the money but had his brother buy an AR-15 rifle with a 100-round magazine and two boxes of ammunition. In doing so, prosecutors said Darius falsely filled out a federal form saying that he was the actual buyer of the gun.
Prosecutors said the younger brother immediately gave the gun to Abrian when they left the store.
According to DeHart's office, later the same day, Abrian's girlfriend expressed concern about her boyfriend now having another gun and said that she was fearful. Darius responded by getting the rifle and hiding it at another person's house. However, prosecutors said Abrian ultimately learned where the gun was, kicked in the door, and retrieved it.
It was this same gun that the U.S. attorney's office said Abrian had in his vehicle when he and his girlfriend went to Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg for help with mental illness later the same morning.
Prosecutors said that while there, he, at some point, went back out to the vehicle and got the rifle, and began shooting. One of the bullets struck a nurse in the chest causing what prosecutors described as serious injuries.
He was ultimately placed under arrest and charged on state charges. Darius later went to the police and admitted to purchasing the gun for his brother.
U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sentenced Abrian to 84 months in federal prison to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. He may also face additional penalties for state court charges that are still pending in Orangeburg County.
Darius, meanwhile, was sentenced to 180 days of home detention and GPS location monitoring.
