Charleston Man Arrested After Fatal West Ashley Argument Shooting

Police had 19-year-old Jacob Andreas Steer in custody within a day of the West Ashley killing, after investigators linked him to a shooting that left 48-year-old Alejandro Sanchez dead near a pond off Ashley Hall Road and North Woodmere Drive.

Charleston police said officers were called to the area at about 6:50 p.m. on April 24, 2026. By around 9 p.m., they had found a victim deceased near a pond. Police said the man had been shot multiple times. Local coverage later described the body as being found in a wooded area near the pond, adding a clearer picture of the secluded spot where the scene unfolded.

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office later identified the victim as Alejandro Sanchez of Charleston. The coroner said Sanchez died on April 24, 2026, from a gunshot wound. His death turned a neighborhood call into a homicide case within hours, and detectives quickly began piecing together how the shooting unfolded in West Ashley.

Investigators said the victim and the suspect knew each other, and that the shooting happened during an argument. That detail pushed the case away from the idea of a random attack and toward a personal confrontation, though authorities have not laid out a fuller motive. For true-crime followers, that distinction matters: the case appears to have started with a dispute, but the exact trigger remains part of the investigative picture.

Steer was arrested at his residence on April 25 and charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. Police continued asking for tips in follow-up coverage as detectives worked the case. The rapid arrest, the close relationship between the men, and the body found near a pond made the West Ashley homicide move fast from scene response to an arrest, with the central question now centered on what sparked the argument that turned deadly.