Columbia police arrest 3, including two 14-year-olds, in string of shooting deaths
Columbia police announced on Monday three arrests in a string of unconnected shootings in the capital city.
The suspects include two 14-year-old boys who are charged in the shooting death of Paul Swatsell, a 53-year-old cab driver who died Dec. 15 on the 4300 block of Brookridge Drive. Police Chief Skip Holbrook said the two teenagers were part of a group of five that hailed the cab at the Waffle House on Broad River Road around 9:30 that evening.
The other three do not face charges, but the investigation is ongoing, Holbrook said..
The two boys are charged with murder, armed robbery and conspiracy, Holbrook said. One of the juveniles is also charged with unlawfully carrying a pistol and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Holbrook announced the arrests at a news conference, closing out a year that saw Columbia’s homicide rate jump by two-thirds, even as crime overall trended down, the police chief said.
In the most recent shooting death, a 23-year-old man was killed following the funeral for a man who was shot and killed a week earlier. Holbrook said police still need the community’s help to locate the shooter in that case.
Keon Tucker died after being shot Dec. 21 on the 4800 block of Norman Street, near the intersection of Farrow Road and Columbia College Drive.
Hundreds of people had gathered on Norman Street after the funeral of Calvin Recardo Bryant Jr., who was shot and killed on Hallbrook Drive on Dec. 15, police said. Many in the crowd fled after gunshots rang out, Columbia police said at the time, and officers had to calm a hostile crowd that gathered after Tucker’s death at the scene.
“We’ve received no help from the people at the scene, and we estimated about 200 people were there,” Holbrook said, noting that officers saw many people at the scene with cell phone cameras that may be useful.
Holbrook called Tucker’s killing part of a “shooting cycle” and asked for witnesses to come forward.
One day before Tucker’s killing, a 57-year-old woman was killed on the 4100 block of Marsteller Street, just off North Main Street near Hyatt Park Elementary School. Harriet Richardson died one week before her 58th birthday, Holbrook said.
Holbrook said 43-year-old Mattiyah Henderson, a neighbor of Richardson, is believed responsible. Henderson shot and killed himself last Thursday as police approached him near Lake Monticello in Fairfield County. The gun is the same caliber as that used in the killing of Richardson, Holbrook said. It’s believed a dispute between the two led to the Richardson’s shooting.
Holbrook also said a man has been arrested in the death of 41-year-old Delon Summersett, killed in a shooting Nov. 25 at his home on the 3000 block of Clark Street, near the intersection of North Main Street and River Drive.
Christopher Cravets was arrested in Summersett’s slaying Friday in Conyers, Georgia, by U.S. Marshals. Cravets is also wanted on charges of armed robbery and kidnapping in Hartsville. He is being extradited back to South Carolina.
Cravets was a known associate of Summersett’s, Holbrook said, and an amount of marijuana found inside the Clark Street home led investigators to believe robbery was the motive for the killing.
The Clark Street shooting came in the midst of a deadly week of gun violence in the Columbia area. Between Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, police responded to nine shootings that killed five people and injured five others.
Holbrook said Monday the city had a 67 percent increase in homicides this year. As 2019 comes to a close, police have closed 20 of 25 homicide cases in the city. Violent crime and total reported crime have fallen 2 percent since last year, Holbrook said.
He encouraged residents to be proactive in working with police to solve outstanding cases.
“There are a small number who are committing the majority of our violent crimes, 85 to 90 percent of it,” he said.
Since April 2018, a joint initiative by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and Columbia Police Department known as the Gun and Violent Crime Reduction Initiative has attempted to reduce shootings by focusing on confiscating illegally owned guns, arresting repeat offenders and raising awareness in communities about gun safety and reporting crime.
By April this year the initiative took more than 1,400 guns off the streets, said Sheriff Leon Lott. The initiative also led to 74 people being charged with gun offenses from April 2018 to April 2019.
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 5:13 PM.
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