FILE – Law enforcement officers gather in front of Columbiana Center Mall in Columbia, South Carolina, after a shooting on April 16, 2022. South Carolina authorities say they are investigating a shooting at a club in Hampton County early Sunday, April 17, 2022, which left at least nine people were injured. It was the second mass shooting in the state in so many days. Sean Rayford / Associated Press
South Carolina authorities are investigating a shooting at a nightclub early Sunday that injured at least nine people. It was the second mass shooting in the state and the third in the country over Easter weekend.
The shooting in South Carolina and one in Pittsburgh, in which two minors were killed early Sunday, also left at least 31 injured.
No one was reported killed in the Cara’s Lounge in Hampton County, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Charleston, according to an email from the South Carolina State Department of Law, which is investigating the shooting. A phone call to the nightclub was not answered.
In Pittsburgh, two young men were killed and at least eight people were shot in a party at a short-term rental property. “The vast majority” of the party’s hundreds of people are minors, city police chief Scott Schubert told reporters. Investigators believe there were many shooters, and Schubert said police were processing evidence at eight separate crime scenes spanning several blocks around the rented home.
The two shootings come just a day after a lively mall in the capital, South Carolina, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of a nightclub shooting on Sunday. Nine people were shot and five others were injured while trying to flee the scene in central Colombia, Colombian Police Chief W. H. Skip Holbrooke said on Saturday. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 73. No one was life-threatening.
“We don’t believe it’s a coincidence,” Holbrooke said. “We believe they know each other and something led to the shooting.
The only person arrested in the shooting at the mall so far is Jeweyne M. Price, 22, one of three people initially detained by law enforcement as a person of interest. Price’s lawyer, Todd Rutherford, told the press on Sunday that his client had fired a gun at the mall, but in self-defense. Rutherford said Price was charged with illegally carrying a gun because he legally owned his gun but was not allowed to carry a weapon.
Colombian police said on Twitter that a judge had agreed on Sunday to allow Price to leave prison on $ 25,000 bail. He was to be placed under house arrest with an ankle monitor, police said.
“It simply came to our notice then. He called the police, surrendered, turned over the firearm used for it, and made a statement to the Columbia Police Department, “Rutherford said, according to WMBF-TV. “That’s why he got a $ 25,000 bond.”
Police said the judge would allow Price to travel from home to work at certain hours each day. Price is banned from contacting the victims and anyone else involved in the shooting.
South Carolina residents aged 21 or over can obtain a gun license, which since last year has allowed them to carry weapons openly or covertly. They must have eight hours of training with a weapon and pass a fingerprint test.
The three mass shootings over Easter over the weekend are in addition to other gun violence in recent days. Last week, a gunman opened fire on a New York subway car, injuring 10 people. The next day, a suspect was detained. Earlier this month, six people were killed and 12 others injured in Sacramento, California, during a shootout between rival gangs as bars closed in the bustling downtown, just blocks from the state’s Capitol.
One week ago, a man and a woman were killed and 10 were injured in a shooting at a crowded nightclub in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And last month, 10 people were shot dead at a spring break party in Dallas and several others were injured while trying to escape the shooting.
Add Comment