Police say a 34-year-old man died after an early Sunday shooting in Winston-Salem, and a 37-year-old woman now faces a voluntary manslaughter charge.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A 37-year-old woman has been charged with felony voluntary manslaughter after a man was shot and killed outside a Winston-Salem address on Indiana Avenue early Sunday, according to police, who arrested her three days after the shooting.
The case moved quickly from a homicide investigation to a criminal charge in less than a week. Winston-Salem police said Calvin Samuel Johnson, 34, was found with a gunshot wound before dawn on April 12 and later died at a hospital. On April 15, detectives arrested Brittany Deshay Grace, 37, after consulting with Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill. The arrest put a name to a case that had drawn attention in the city because of the location, the timing and the unanswered question of what led to the gunfire.
Police said officers were sent to 2805 Indiana Ave. at 4:18 a.m. Sunday after a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found Johnson suffering from a gunshot wound. Emergency crews took him to a local medical facility, where he later died. His next of kin were notified, investigators said. By Tuesday, the department’s Criminal Investigations Division had identified Grace as a suspect. Detectives arrested her on Wednesday and charged her with felony voluntary manslaughter. Police have repeatedly described the shooting as an isolated incident, a phrase often used to indicate investigators do not believe there is an active threat to the public.
The public record released so far remains narrow. Police have named Johnson as the man who died and Grace as the person charged, but they have not publicly laid out a detailed account of the confrontation, said whether the two knew each other, or explained what evidence led prosecutors and detectives to pursue voluntary manslaughter rather than a murder charge. Court language cited by local outlets alleges that Grace “did kill and slay” Johnson, but the charging information available in public reporting does not answer the central factual question in the case: what exactly happened in the minutes before the shot was fired. Investigators also have not publicly said whether witnesses were interviewed at the scene, whether surveillance video exists, or whether a weapon was recovered.
What is clear is the timeline. The shooting happened in the early morning hours of April 12 on the 2800 block of Indiana Avenue. Johnson died after being taken from the scene for medical treatment. Within three days, detectives said they had consulted with the district attorney and made an arrest. That sequence suggests investigators believed they had enough evidence to move the case into court quickly, even as the broader investigation continued. The site of the shooting has been described in multiple local reports as outside Quiet Corner Sports Bar, a business on Indiana Avenue. That detail has become part of the public discussion because shootings tied to nightlife settings often bring added scrutiny from neighbors, police and local officials even when authorities say an incident was isolated.
The legal posture of the case also shifted within a day. Initial local reporting said Grace appeared before a magistrate and was held with no bond allowed. Later reporting said that after a first court appearance, a judge set bond at $150,000 and imposed a condition barring her from the bar property. That means the case is now moving through the normal court process while police continue gathering facts. A voluntary manslaughter charge in North Carolina generally signals an allegation of an unlawful killing without the element of premeditation required for murder, though the exact theory in this case has not been publicly explained by police or prosecutors. No public court filing quoted in local coverage has spelled out a claim of self-defense, provocation or accident, and those remain open questions.
The reaction around the case has centered on the loss of Johnson and the lack of public detail. A public statement attributed to the bar’s owner and cited by a local outlet expressed condolences to Johnson’s family and warned against misinformation as discussion spread online. Even so, the most important official message has come from investigators, who have said only that the matter remains under investigation and that additional confirmed information will be released as appropriate. For Johnson’s family, the arrest marked a major step but not the end of the case. For Grace, the charge begins a court fight that is likely to turn on facts the public still has not seen.
As of Friday, the charge against Grace remained pending and police had not released a fuller narrative of the shooting. The next milestone is expected to come in court as the case moves forward and investigators decide whether to release more details.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.