Growing SC town canceled summer events after teen crime incidents. What now?
The town of Blythewood’s “Movies in the Park” is a small event that local leaders have described as intimate and family-friendly.
This year, though, things got out of hand. At the first event on March 15, a “pop-up party,” a large gathering of teens that sparks within minutes following invites on social media, brought hundreds to the event, and fights broke out, Mayor Pro-Tem Donald Brock said.
“When I showed up before this happened that Saturday night, you could just kind of feel the tension in the air,” Brock said. “Something just felt off.”
Mayor Sloan Griffin and the town council attempted to mitigate future risk by stationing more deputies at the next showing in April. There were 10 deputies there provided by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department that could be seen walking around, up from the usual two, Brock said.
The additional police presence didn’t change the outcome. Fights broke out again.
“At that point, we said, ‘We realize there’s a bigger problem that we cannot control simply by adding deputies,” Brock said. “And for the safety of the community, and maybe even for the teens themselves, we’ve just got to stop this until we have a plan that we can actually execute … to create a safe environment.”
Council members also cited concerns over a shootout at a nearby Waffle House in April caused by another “pop-up party.” 70 shots were fired and one person was injured.
The fights that broke out during these incidents were caused mainly by teens who were not residents of Blythewood, so they haven’t affected the town’s overall crime rate, Griffin told The State.
But the majority of town council had seen enough, voting in April to cancel all events planned at Doko Meadows Park for the rest of the year until a security plan is in place. The only major event this year that the town has not canceled is the annual Christmas parade, scheduled for Dec. 7. The mayor was the only leader to vote against the cancellations.
“The continuous highlight [is] that we have a perceived crime problem in town,” Griffin told The State. “We don’t have a problem with the crime in town. We have an incident that happened. The overall crime rate in Blythewood is still low.”
Among the canceled events were the town’s planned Juneteenth celebration, the Rockin’ Red, White, & Blue Celebration slated for the July 4 weekend and the remainder of the Movies in the Park showings.
Blythewood, a growing town northeast of Columbia, has a population of nearly 7,000 residents, according to recent population estimates, showing rapid growth from its 2,000 residents as of the 2010 U.S. Census.
The town is expecting even more in the coming months. A new medical center is expected to open late this year, a Scout Motors plant is set to bring in 4,000 new jobs and a new charter school will likely attract more younger residents and families.
As the town grapples with its increasing population, local leaders are weighing its options to create a safe environment before planning future events.
What needs to change?
The issues with Movies in the Park aren’t the first problems Blythewood has had with events, Brock said. Last year’s July 4 event had at least 10,000 people in attendance and descended into “chaos” when teens set off fireworks without permission.
Doko Meadows Park was never designed to have a crowd that large coming in from all directions, which allows for an incident to quickly get out of hand, he said. It was a signal to the town’s elected leaders that something needs to be done to mitigate the risk of something worse happening.
The town has not had security in place for summer events, aside from July 4, until this year, when the turnout for the first Movies in the Park event was higher than expected, Griffin said.
The town’s events are not canceled permanently, Brock said. The council would like to see a more firm plan in place going forward to create as safe an environment as possible for next year.
Griffin told The State the incidents have pointed people’s attention toward the mayor to come up with that plan.
“I question the word ‘plans,’ because ‘plans’ means something different to everyone, and there hasn’t ever been any clarity,” Griffin said.
Brock said he’d like to see the council determine the target audience for events and codify rules and ordinances “that Richland County can and will enforce.” There needs to be more education for the public about the town’s expectations, and real consequences if rules are violated, he added.
“If people are being rowdy, we [could] eject them,” Brock said. “We hit them with a trespass notice. If they show up again, they can be arrested. We have to come together and create ordinances that actually have some teeth.”
No one on the council wanted to see the events canceled, Brock said, but if people plan to disregard the rules of Doko Meadows Park and police presence, it was in their best interest to “let it cool down.”
“Right now we just don’t feel that we’re there, but we’re absolutely in favor of working on it, because that’s one of the things that makes this town great, is we have great events,” Brock said.
More police needed?
The mayor proposed memos for the council’s consideration at a May 29 meeting specifying how many deputies might be requested from Richland County Sheriff Lott’s office for each event, as Blythewood doesn’t have its own police force. Lott tagged the remaining events for 2025 with a “high threat level,” requiring the presence of 50 deputies. The higher the threat, the higher the cost will be to hire enough deputies.
Council members disputed the need for a high threat level, and Griffin said he took that as a sign that the problem is actually the cost of hiring deputies.
“Council has to figure out two things: Trust the Richland County Sheriff’s Department to fulfill their mission to provide law enforcement needs to the community, and then second of all, be willing to pay for those necessities,” Griffin said.
“You either want to secure it or you don’t,” the mayor added. “It doesn’t matter at the end of the day, you’re going to get 8-10,000 people to show up for fireworks, so you have to have those high-risk factors put into place.”
The presence of deputies is not enough to bank on, Brock said.
“Simply hiring some police officers and stationing them around the park, that’s not a plan,” he reasoned. “That’s reactive to a situation that we find discomforting.”
Even 50 would not be enough to manage 10,000 people in an open park, Brock said:
“I still think you’ve got a tinder box just waiting to explode.”
The town council has discussed for the past several months how to decrease the likelihood of these incidents, considering a fence around Doko Meadows Park and a curfew for minors.
The idea of a curfew was recently struck down after uncertainty that deputies would be available to enforce it. Brock pointed to the individuals arrested for the Waffle House shooting being over 18 as evidence it would also be ineffective.
Council members were divided as to whether a fence might make the park feel like a prison during their meeting on May 29.
Election uncertainty
Griffin told The State that he assumes the council wants to hold events, but their main focus is changing the form of government.
The council decided on May 27 to open a vote to town residents to strip the mayor of his administrative duties and assign them to a newly appointed full-time town administrator. That election is scheduled for July 29.
The measure to move forward with the public vote passed by the same 4-1 margin by which the members voted to cancel the town’s events, with Griffin casting the dissenting vote both times.
If the governmental change is approved, the mayor would be stripped of his administrative privileges and all members of council would have equal duties while a manager leads the administration of the town.
“I think a lot of that is really politically motivated to where [they] don’t want any events under this administration,” Griffin told The State. “So if the council stays the same, and the referendum doesn’t change, you’ll see them just continue the same path.”
Brock denied that the cancellations are motivated by Griffin being in office, saying that’s “not at all” the reasoning, despite clear disagreements between the mayor and council. He said it’s possible, however, that the referendum and November election could shift the future of the town’s events.
Two council seats held by Councilwoman Erica Page and Councilman Rich McKenrick are on the ballot this fall. If those seats are filled by new members who align with Griffin, that could change the town’s thinking on how to secure future events, Brock said.
Events for the rest of 2025?
For now, the town’s Christmas parade is still on for December.
Brock said the parade will probably come under more scrutiny this year “given the environment we’re currently in.” Residents can expect an additional increase in security, he said, but he doesn’t feel the threat level needs to be as high for a daytime event. Griffin said the designation is needed to properly regulate crowds and traffic.
With the parade scheduled for after the November election, Griffin said many of the funding and security details surrounding the event are contingent upon its results.
Griffin has proposed holding a fireworks show around July 4 despite the main event being canceled. Brock told The State that planning such an event would be “awfully rushed.”
Griffin said he’s tried to offset the cancellation of other events with the introduction of Food Truck Fridays in Doko Meadows Park. He said the first event two weeks ago went well.
“We’re looking to see, is that something that we can continue to grow to at least give people in Blythewood something to look forward to?” Griffin said.
How to handle future events in the town remains unresolved.
“[Residents] want to be able to come out to the facilities in peace, not be afraid, and they want to partake in activities,” the mayor said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 8:39 AM.
