COLUMBIA, S.C. — Brittany Scott was in a Columbia hospital bed, machines dripping fluids and pumping oxygen into her body to keep her heart beating and lungs breathing. Her eyes were taped shut.
The spirit that once drove her personality and led her to say "I love you" to her children had been severed by the bullet shards in her brain.
She was brain dead. But the baby inside her was still alive.
Scott's story reveals that one bullet doesn't simply wound a person; it ripples through a family. An investigation into the shooting has saddled Scott's mother, Terronda Nielson, with consternation.
The Columbia Police Department said it is actively investigating the Aug. 2 shooting and consulting with the 5th Circuit Solicitor's Officer on the case.
Solicitor Byron Gipson called Scott's shooting case "a priority" and said investigators are "continuing to diligently work the case."
After almost two months of investigation, no arrest has been made despite Columbia police and prosecutors knowing who shot her daughter, Nielson said.
The police department and solicitor's office did not respond when asked if investigators knew Scott's shooter. But shortly after the shooting, the police department indicated an acquaintance shot Scott.
In September, Nielson told The State that her daughter was not coming back except by a miracle. Now, she fears justice may be slipping away as well.
"I just want justice," Nielson said. "I don't understand how an arrest has not been made."
Scott had her first child at 17 years old, her mother said. She had dropped out of school and left home amid a rebellious phase, but eventually returned to both, realizing it would be best for her and her soon-to-be born daughter. Teachers and administrators told Scott and her mother that graduating with her class would be difficult with all she had missed.
But even with the responsibility of becoming a new mother, Scott stayed focused on school. She walked across the graduation stage on time with her baby, Nielson said.
Much like her resolve to graduate high school, for the next 12 years Scott was determined to make a better life for her children and herself despite the difficulties of being a single mom, Nielson said.
At 26, Scott had a son, who's now 5 years old. Scott cherished being a mother, Nielson said. Scott's now 13-year-old daughter would say her mother was her best friend. Scott nurtured relationships with the children's fathers to make sure they stayed in their lives, Nielson said.
By 31 years old, Scott had worked her way up to a supervisor position at a customer service company, her mother said. She bought a new car. She was getting her credit straightened out and was planning to buy a house.
"She was really driven and working to get her life on the right track," Nielson said.
All Scott's hopes ended Aug. 2.
The Columbia Police Department provided few details about the shooting investigation. The State filed a request under South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act seeking investigative reports, but the department had not provided them by Sept. 30.
Scott was involved in a dispute, police said, possibly just verbal, in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Public records indicate she lived at the complex. At about 9 p.m., a person shot Scott in the head in the parking lot.
About an hour, later the police department reported on social media that the shooting was an isolated incident between acquaintances.
Jennifer Timmons, spokesperson for the Columbia Police Department, said the lead investigator Is still interviewing people about the shooting, and evidence found at the scene is being processed.
"The case is by no means closed," Timmons said.
Gipson, the solicitor, agreed.
"Once all information is obtained and the investigation has been completed, our staff will review the evidence and opine on possible charging decisions."
Scott was hospitalized and put on life support. Doctors concluded that her injury was inoperable. Her brain was too damaged for her to recover, Nielson said. But her baby was due Nov. 25, and doctors wanted to keep Scott's body functioning until Oct. 15 so the unborn child could be nourished and grow.
Scott wouldn't make it to that date.
During several interviews with The State, Nielson's grief, while obvious, never came with tears. The only time Nielson cried was when talking about her daughter's laugh. Her daughter was the person that made the room laugh.
She did that this past Christmas, her favorite holiday, Nielson said. Scott, with her daughter and son, gathered at Nielson's house with Nielson's husband, Scott's longtime stepfather. They had dinner and played games like Phase 10, a family favorite.
"On Christmas morning there was just a spark," Nielson said. "She told her kids how much she loved them and they told her they loved her."
Scott told her mom that it was her daughter and son's first "real Christmas," one in which she could give them exactly what they wanted.
No one knew it would be Scott's last Christmas, Nielson said. Nor did they know that her body would be pushed to the limit in an effort to save her last child.
Although Scott was brain dead, her body was kept alive for nearly eight weeks. But on Sept. 26, with the unborn baby's heart rate dropping, doctors took the child from Scott's womb. Scott was taken off life support, and she died hours later.
The newborn baby, a boy who weighed three pounds, was put into a neonatal intensive care unit. Some of his organs weren't fully developed.
The child, named Zion, is in critical condition and "very sick," Nielson said. Doctors have said the next two weeks will be crucial for the baby's life. Doctors will scan the child's brain in a few more days to see if it is damaged.
Nielson checks on her new grandchild everyday. The baby is "fragile," she said.
"Two more months he would have had a better chance at life," Nielson said.
The Richland County Coroner's Office determined Scott died from a single gun shot. Her death was ruled a homicide, according to Coroner Naida Rutherford.
It isn't unusual for police to charge a person hours, days or a couple weeks after a homicide. Police charge people with crimes based on "probable cause," which means evidence leads investigators to believe a person may have committed a crime. Probable cause is not equal to guilt.
Nielson believes investigators have plenty of probable cause to arrest her daughter's shooter. The person who shot Scott admitted it to police, Nielson said. Nielson contends her daughter was defenseless when she was shot. The Columbia Police Department and 5th Circuit Solicitor's Office did not respond when asked if Scott was unarmed when shot.
At her late stage of pregnancy, how much harm could she have done to anyone, Nielson said, even if she was involved in a dispute?
Nielson worries that Columbia police or the solicitor's office may be angling toward a determination that her daughter's shooting was a justifiable homicide, typically called self defense.
While the details and inner workings of the investigation as well as the moments leading up to Scott's shooting are being withheld by investigators, what is known is that her shooting came amid a rash of gun violence in Richland County.
Scott was shot just a day after a 10-hour span from July 31 to early Aug. 1 when more than a dozen people were injured in unrelated Richland County shootings.
The crime trends of the area are not Nielson's focus. She's concentrated on ensuring justice isn't denied for her daughter.
"Her murderer is still on the streets," Nielson said "As long as (the shooter's) out there with no charges, what healing is there for me?"
One action could bring her some peace.
"This child will never meet their mom," she said. "I want an arrest made."
