Columbia shooting damages businesses in trendy downtown neighborhood
Storefront windows and a glass door were shattered early Saturday morning, leaving shards on the Sumter Street sidewalk in front of three trendy businesses on the 2200 block.
Columbia police believe the damage was inflicted by a shooting in the wee hours, according to a provided incident report.
As of Monday morning, all three businesses in the Cottontown neighborhood had wood paneling covering their damaged windows. Glass remnants were scattered around the windowpane at Indah Coffee, which was crowded with customers despite the damage.
Indah owner Nick Hauser got a glass break notification around 12:30 a.m. on June 14 and called the police. The officer who responded found damage to the coffee shop, as well as its in-building neighbor Circa Barbershop and the nearby Cottontown Crossfit.
Officers collected one shell casing at the scene after canvassing the area and described the weapon as a handgun, according to the police report. No injuries were reported.
“It basically just looks like somebody drove by at night, just a cowardly act of vandalism,” Hauser said.
Columbia police are actively searching for a suspect, department spokesperson Jennifer Timmons said.
The properties were “willfully and maliciously damaged by an unknown suspect,” the police report said, resulting in $4,000 in assessed damages.
“It’s very expensive for small businesses [with the] disruption to business and the tremendous expense of repairing glass door fronts and that kind of thing,” Hauser said.
He also expressed concern about the danger of having broken glass around the storefront when there are children walking along Sumter Street. The wreckage is now mostly under control, he told The State on Tuesday.
The 2200 block of Sumter Street is a developing area in the middle of downtown Columbia. Hauser, who opened a brick-and-mortar location for his roastery there in 2017, said it is “generally a very safe neighborhood” with incidents only occurring after business hours in the early morning.
Il Focolare, a small pizza restaurant on the Sumter block, was spared from damage. An owner commented Sunday on a Reddit post about the shooting.
“We had windows busted out like 5 times over 2 years. Thankfully hasn’t happened in a while. This sucks. I checked my cameras and didn’t pick up anyone,” they said.
Circa Barbershop owner DR Granger said he found out about the shooting after being contacted by Indah’s team. One side of Circa’s double-pane window was completely shattered and the other had a bullet hole through it. The barbershop opened its Sumter Street location in 2017.
Hauser and Granger said this is the first time their businesses have experienced a shooting. They saw break-in attempts during their first couple years in business, also late at night.
There was no attempt from the shooter to enter the buildings Saturday morning, according to the police report.
Granger said his team loves the neighborhood and an incident like this could’ve happened anywhere.
“It’s obviously unfortunate,” he said. “It’s a blessing that it happened in the middle of the night, but I think that no matter where you’re located, you’re going to have times where crime takes place.”
Hauser told The State most of the wreckage is now under control, while Circa is working to get estimates on the repair cost. Granger said the businesses on the block have a close relationship.
“We’re good to go,” Granger said of their recovery. “It is all good.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 3:45 PM.
