Friends say murder suspect 'snapped'

LANCASTER, S.C. -- Friends say a Lancaster man responsible for a murder-suicide and standoff on Wednesday snapped and "went off the deep end."

Darren Winchester committed suicide Wednesday after a six-hour standoff with police. Investigators said he barricaded himself inside his home after shooting and killing 55-year-old Ronnie Cairnes.

Friends say Winchester had recently lost a brother, his house was being foreclosed on and on Tuesday, he watched his best friend die.

"He come and he stood over daddy's bed and he talked to him. He broke down and left crying," said Renee Hall. "And then when daddy died I guess he went off the deep end."

Lancaster sheriff's deputies say Winchester shot and killed Cairnes Wednesday morning at the bait and tackle shop that Cairnes owned.

"Ronnie came out of the store and the fellow that lives across the road shot him in the eye and killed him," said David Cairnes, Ronnie's brother.

Cairnes said Winchester had threatened to kill his brother before.

"Ronnie and this guy never did get along," he said. "He always come over here and started trouble."

After killing Ronnie Cairnes, investigators say Winchester barricaded himself in his house and fired shots at police helicopters.

"I asked the police to let me try to talk to Darren with a megaphone or something -- that maybe I could ask him to come out but they said it was too dangerous," Hall said.

Witnesses threw tear gas into the house in an attempt to get Winchester out.

"I said, 'Well he'll come running out and then they'll shoot him' but they said he shot himself," Hall said.

Cairnes was a father and grandfather. He had owned the shop where he was killed for four years.