Devonte Bernard Johnson,Mohsin Malik Hamid Obituary, Death; – Two men were arrested and charged in connection to a fatal shooting at a former Greensboro club last year, according to a Greensboro Police Department news release.
On March 8, 2024, at 1:20 a.m., Guilford County EMS, Greensboro officers and UNC-Greensboro campus police responded to 1707 Spring Garden Street on a reported shooting at the Culture Lounge. Around 100 people were inside the business at the time of the shooting. Arriving EMS workers began life-saving measures on multiple people who had been shot inside the business.
Devonte Bernard Johnson, 28, of Winston-Salem, and Mohsin Malik Hamid, 24, of Greensboro, were pronounced dead on the scene. Johnson was a guest at the business at the time of the shooting, and Hamid was shot while trying to help other guests.
A woman who had been shot was taken to the hospital and survived. Video surveillance and ballistic evidence recovered from the scene were used to identify one shooter After conducting interviews, detectives preliminarily concluded the shooting was targeted. The shooter left the scene and remained at large. After a yearlong investigation, detectives have now established that the motive for the shooting was gang-related.
Jaylen Deshawn-Mathew Sawyer, 25, of High Point, was identified as the shooter and now faces murder charges. Traevon Shahmir Wilson, 30, of Greensboro, is accused of accessory after the fact. Markese Antone Taliaferro, 29, of Browns Summit, was also identified as a suspect. However, he was killed in a 2024 drive-by shooting.
Sawyer is now charged with:
- two counts of first-degree murder
- one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury
- one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
He is in the Guilford County Jail without bond. Sawyer was in court on Thursday after he allegedly committed an assault and was shot by a trooper during a traffic stop almost two weeks ago, an incident which closed down Interstate 85 between Guilford and Randolph counties for hours.
According to the Highway Patrol, on May 15, around 12:30 p.m., they stopped a car in Guilford County for speeding on I-85. While they were stopped, a car pulled up and the female driver asked troopers for help because the passenger, identified as Sawyer, was assaulting her.
When troopers approached the car, they say that Sawyer shot at them. They shot him in response. The victim was able to get out of the car and Sawyer drove off, with troopers making chase. The pursuit lasted about 8 miles into Randolph County before the vehicle was disabled in the median, near the 111 exit.
The troopers involved were not hurt and were placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure. Sawyer was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Warrants show that Sawyer has been charged with felony flee to elude arrest, misdemeanor reckless driving, misdemeanor speeding, failure to heed a siren, failure to wear a seatbelt, possession of a firearm by a felon, two counts of felony assaulting a law enforcement official with a firearm, and misdemeanor resisting a public official.
In court, he requested a court-appointed lawyer and was instructed that felony flee to elude is a class H felony with a maximum possible punishment of 39 months in custody. According to officials in the courtroom, Sawyer has a criminal record going back to 2018, primarily with drug-related charges.
Traevon Shahmir Wilson, 30, of Greensboro, is charged with one count of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder for helping Sawyer leave the scene while speeding after the shooting. He was arrested on Thursday and is in the Guilford County Jail.
Taliaferro
Markese Antone Taliaferro, 29, of Browns Summit, was at the Culture Lounge during the shooting and was identified as an involved suspect. Taliaferro was killed in a drive-by shooting on Oct. 3, 2024.
Greensboro police, Greensboro fire officials and Guilford County EMS responded to a shooting call around 7:07 p.m. in the 100 block of Meadowville Lane where they found three injured men in the parking lot of an apartment complex. All three appeared to have gunshot wounds. Taliafero died at the scene. The other two men were taken by ambulance to a hospital with critical injuries and survived.
