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Jarrell Kwabbie Boyan, 29, had worked with the department for over five years in October 2016, when he and two lower-ranking officers restrained an inmate and removed him from his cell, where the inmate had broken a lightbulb, according to federal court records.

A North Charleston man accused of fatally shooting his wife in the back as she tried to leave him waived his bond hearing Wednesday morning in what the victim's family described as a pattern of cowardice.

Romane Clare, 33, shot his wife twice at their Whitney Drive home on Sept. 26 before fleeing to Florida, according to North Charleston police. He was arrested the following weekend in Fort Lauderdale. 

Ebony Clare, a 37-year-old hairstylist, had been trying to escape a pattern of abuse that began before the couple married, the family said.

Before their wedding, she stumbled upon Romane Clare with another woman, and he shot Ebony in the leg, according to a 2014 Hanahan police report. Police charged him with attempted murder, unlawful carrying of a pistol and discharging a firearm in a home, but he ended up pleading guilty only to second-degree assault and battery and unlawful carrying of a pistol, according to court records.

He received three years of probation, and he was ordered to stay away from his victim and from firearms.

A dozen relatives, some from out of state, huddled outside bond court Wednesday, where they expected Clare to appear for his hearing. Nothing he could have said would excuse Ebony's death, they said, but waiving the hearing only added to their anger.

"That's cowardice," Ebony's father, Vernon Myers, said. "But God's going to make him pay."

Authorities should have predicted and prevented the violence, said her sister Sheena Myers. Romane Clare should have been deported or imprisoned.

Ebony's body was peppered with cigarette burns and her clothes were ripped, Myers said.

Myers was used to following in her big sister's footsteps. She moved to Atlanta after Clare did, and joined her in becoming a hairstylist.

Three days after her sister's death, she returned to the house to collect insurance paperwork. 

"The whole house is like a murder scene," Myers said. Blood spattered the curtains and bullets pierced the living room wall and kitchen refrigerator, she said.

The family found a gun and bullets, which police said they hadn't been able to locate. North Charleston police didn't respond to questions about their search.

"It's like they (police) didn't even go in," Myers said.

She's worried the department dismissed Ebony as "another black female dead, and she chose to stay with him."

The department issued a statement saying that protecting and serving the community was their first priority, and that they "believe the judicial process will bring justice to the victim and potential closure to their family."

"It's not easy to just leave someone who's threatening your family," Myers said, adding Ebony was in a state where her mind was being controlled.

Reach Sara Coello at 843-937-5707 and follow her on Twitter @smlcoello.

Reporter

Sara Coello has covered the Charleston area's justice system for The Post and Courier since September 2019. She previously covered crime and courts at The Dallas Morning News.

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