Suspect in Columbia teen’s 2015 slaying is ‘a walking crime spree,’ chief says
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More than three years after a 14-year-old Columbia boy was gunned down while walking home from a basketball court, police have arrested a suspect.
Leonard Mickens will be charged with murder in the 2015 shooting death of NaJeer Buggs, Columbia police Chief Skip Holbrook announced Monday.
NaJeer was walking home on Grand Street with his cousin after playing at a nearby basketball court on July 3, 2015, when he was shot, officials have said. When the two were around the 1400 block of Grand Street, not far from Colonial Drive in north Columbia, a light-colored sedan pulled up, and people inside began firing gunshots.
NaJeer was shot in the upper body and later died at a hospital.
“If there was a definition of an innocent victim, NaJeer would be that,” Holbrook said.
The motive for the shooting is unclear, the chief said. Neither NaJeer nor his cousin were gang affiliated, though Mickens was.
Investigators cracked the case after DNA was found on shell casings collected from the scene in 2015, Holbrook said during a Monday news conference. After years of forensic testing, Mickens was connected to the scene.
Mickens, whom Holbrook called “a walking crime spree,” was connected to six other cases in the Columbia area involving a firearm and was already being held at the Lexington County Detention Center awaiting trial on federal charges, Holbrook said. Though Mickens was identified as a suspect earlier, police took their time in charging him.
“We wanted to make sure we had it right before moving on,” Holbrook said.
Mickens is awaiting trial on a federal charge of felon in possession of a firearm from an October 2014 incident, according to the federal indictment. He will be facing charges of murder, possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime and attempted murder for the incident involving NaJeer.
Police do not believe there are any other suspects in the case at this time, Holbrook said.
Holbrook thanked Najeer’s family for their patience in the case that took about three years to close.
“You’ve shown tremendous courage through this,” Holbrook said.
NaJeer’s family members were present at Monday’s news conference. His mother, Lawanda Buggs, said she cried when she got the call from Holbrook just before the Thanksgiving holidays.
“It hurt bad,” she said Monday. “We got closure. My family needed it. He can rest.”
Buggs called Najeer “the family clown,” saying that he had never even been in a fight before.
“That was my guy,” Buggs said. “It’s just heartless. It’s cruel.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2018 at 3:22 PM.
