GLOVERVILLE, S.C. (WJBF) — A 20-year-old Gloverville man is in custody tonight, accused of shooting and killing his mother.
Deputies say Zayvian Butler killed his mother, then barricaded himself inside. He faces murder and weapons charges.
“All we heard was boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and you could hear somebody hollering,” Teresa Samuels said. “So my son opened the door and he ran in the house and he say he done shot her, he done shot her. And I’m like, who done shot who? And he said, he done shot my moms. I know she dead, I know she dead.”
Samuels has known the family for years. Zayvian’s brother Isaac and her grandson Kingston are best friends. Her family had just finished watching the Super Bowl when she heard that knock.
“He was so hysterical, we couldn’t understand what he was saying,” she recalled. “I had to grab him and tell him to calm down before I could even call 911. I looked at my phone, it was 1119 when I dialed 9 1 1.”
Deputies arrived at 518 Lawana Drive to find bullet holes in the door and Butler armed inside.
Witnesses say he fired multiple shots and appeared suicidal. His mother, Adrienne Richardson, was found dead in a bedroom.
“I ain’t never seen nothing like this,” Samuels shared. “I ain’t never went through being somebody that had to call the police because somebody got shot. It’s something I can’t imagine—your child doing this to you.”
Deputies say Butler eventually surrendered after hours inside.
“Oh Lord, the SWAT team and all was out here. There was so many polices out here. It was enough police out here. It was enough,” she recalled.
Some neighbors we spoke to off-camera expressed concerns. One gave us a video, which appears to show Butler with a rifle.
Meanwhile, Samuels says he wasn’t always like this—once a sharp, well-groomed kid working with the fire department. Now, she’s trying to understand how he ended up accused of killing his own mother.
“That ain’t the same little boy I know. You could look at him and tell something wasn’t right. Something else was going on with him.”
Butler is in custody at the Aiken County Detention Center. Deputies had been there before—Butler was charged with assault and battery earlier this year.
