Tuesday evening, what should have been a routine stop at a Spartanburg Walmart turned into a nightmare of gunfire and terror. Around 7:30 p.m. on September 9, 2025, a woman driving through the bustling parking lot on Dorman Centre Drive felt the sharp crack of bullets shattering her sense of safety. The shooter? Her ex-boyfriend, 41-year-old Brandon Dewavn Parker, who police say unleashed a hail of shots from his vehicle in a fit of rage.

She was hit once at first, the pain surging as she gripped the wheel and floored it toward the store’s entrance, where a security officer’s car sat parked like a beacon of hope. Stumbling out, desperate for help, she collapsed just as more rounds tore through the air—another bullet finding her leg. Parker didn’t stick around; he sped off into the night, leaving behind a scene of chaos that rippled through the lot like a shockwave.

Shoppers inside the store froze at the sound of five sharp pops echoing outside. “It was like the world stopped,” one witness later told reporters, her voice still shaky. “Everyone just looked at each other, hearts pounding, wondering if it was safe to even peek out the windows.” No one else was hurt, thank God, but the parking lot quickly became a hive of flashing lights and yellow tape as officers swarmed in, piecing together the evidence under the store’s harsh glow.

The victim, her back and leg riddled with wounds, was rushed to a nearby hospital. As of Wednesday morning, authorities hadn’t released updates on her condition, but the fact that she made it that far speaks to a fierce will to survive. Meanwhile, Parker’s flight kicked off a frantic multistate manhunt. He didn’t get far before Kentucky State Police spotted him near Lexington, over 300 miles away, pulling him over around 12:40 a.m. He was still in the same clothes from the shooting, and tucked in his car? A gun matching the one used in the attack.

Now held in Kentucky on traffic charges while extradition papers fly south, Parker faces a heavy slate of accusations back in South Carolina: attempted murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, breach of peace of a high and aggravated nature, and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. It’s a grim list that underscores the raw violence of what unfolded in that everyday parking lot.

Why did he do it? Police are still digging into the motives, sifting through the layers of a relationship gone sour. For now, the focus is on justice—and on healing for a community rattled by the close call. If you saw something, heard something, Spartanburg PD wants to hear from you at 864-596-2065, or drop an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC. In a place where families shop without a second thought, this story hits hard, a stark reminder that danger can lurk just beyond the aisles.