Solicitor: No evidence of criminal wrongdoing in 2014 officer-involved shooting

Fifth circuit solicitor Dan Johnson cleared a handful of Midlands area law enforcement officers involved in the August 5, 2014 shooting of two suspects wanted for a series of violent crimes including armed robbery, carjacking and kidnapping.

Johnson declared the case closed in a letter dated January 20 to heads of the State Law Enforcement Division, the Columbia Police Department, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.

The letter lays out the facts leading up to and including the shooting of Keylan Jambari Durham, 22, and passenger Quentin Warner who had been cornered in a parking lot of the Brook Pines apartment complex off Broad River Road, in a black Hyundai that belonged to Durham’s girlfriend. Blocked in by police vehicles and ordered out of his vehicle, Durham revved his car and shot out in reverse, striking Columbia police officer Marcus Brown who opened fire on the speeding vehicle which hit several civilian cars and ran into a light pole. As Brown, Richland County Sheriff’s Department investigator Justin Britt, Columbia police officer Anna Bailey and SLED senior agent Keith Thrower approached the car, Brown opened fire again, believing that Durham was reaching for a weapon, Johnson said.

In all 21 shots were fired; 14 by Brown, 5 by Thrower and 2 by Britt.

Durham was hit once in the left arm, his passenger was hit in the neck, leg and back. Durham, Warner and officer Brown were taken to Palmetto Health Richland Hospital.

Durham is now serving a sentence at the McCormack Correctional Institution on two counts of failure to stop for an officer. He’s due to be released on March 26, 2015. Warner faced a parole violation and a third suspect, Devontae Xavier Bryant, 21, and already in custody, was charged with accessory to carjacking and failure to stop on police command, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said at the time.

One of the officers cleared of wrong-doing by the solicitor is Justin Britt who is seeking the GOP nomination for Lexington County Sheriff.

Johnson, after reviewing the investigations by several departments and forensics work by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, concluded that all the officers involved acted in accordance of state law, each “ officer’s use of force was reasonable” and that the use of lethal force by three of the officers was “applied in good faith” given the information they had at the time and the actions of one of the suspects.

This story was originally published January 27, 2015 at 10:45 PM with the headline "Solicitor: No evidence of criminal wrongdoing in 2014 officer-involved shooting."