SLED: 1 killed, 2 charged after shootout on SC interstate following high speed chase
A person in a high speed chase with police fired on the convoy of chasing officers before pulling into an Interstate 26 rest area to steal another vehicle, according to a state police report.
The Friday incident was the first of two shootouts between police and two carjackers that left a bystander dead after a high speed pursuit that spanned the eastern Midlands to the Lowcountry, police said.
The shootings have led to an investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
Earlier Friday, police attempted to stop a vehicle that was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour on Interstate 95 near Orangeburg and Clarendon counties, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division report.
Officers with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, Santee Police Department and Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office pursued the vehicle onto I-26 and into the rest area near mile marker 203. They fired at police and police fired back, according to warrants. They carjacked another motorist’s vehicle, SLED’s report said.
A person who occupied the carjacked vehicle was killed in the shootout, the warrants said. Whether the person was killed by a gunshot from police or the carjackers is also under investigation.
The pursuit ended for sometime, according to SLED’s report, before a call about a person being carjacked at gunpoint came from a convenience store on Dorchester Road in North Charleston.
The carjackers from the interstate pursuit had stolen another vehicle, according to police.
North Charleston Police Department spotted the stolen vehicle from the convenience store carjacking and tried to pull over the vehicle and the two individuals inside it, agents said.
However, the carjackers continued to flee in the stolen vehicle.
During the chase the carjackers ran into a retaining pond in Dorchester County. Officers ordered the carjackers to get out of the vehicle. At least one of the carjackers shot at the officers who returned fire.
No one was hit in the second shootout.
North Charleston Police arrested a man and woman from the vehicle. Police identified the man as 25-year-old Shikeem Wigfall and the woman as 21-year-old Kayla Dyanni Rivera.
Both are charged with murder, two counts of carjacking — one with great bodily injury — and failure to stop for police, according to the warrants. They are being held without bond on the murder charge at the Charleston County detention center.
Wigfall and Rivera admitted to the carjackings after their arrests, according to warrants.
Since a homicide in connection with firing in a public space at police officers raises the level of the murder charge, Wigfall and Rivera could potentially face the death penalty if convicted.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 3:48 PM.