Woman has bullet fragments in head years after road rage shooting, prosecutor says
A man was sentenced to decades behind bars for a 2018 shooting where he targeted a car with small children inside and severely injured their mother, prosecutors said Monday.
Anthony Fanning, 38, was convicted on an assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature charge in a Lexington County courtroom, the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in a news release.
Court records show Fanning was arrested on Dec. 4, 2018, a day after the solicitor’s office said he opened fire at a moving vehicle occupied by three adults and three kids.
The Columbia man was riding a motorcycle on a section of Interstate 26 in Lexington County when he used a pistol to shoot at a traveling Hyundai Sonata in the road rage incident, the solicitor’s office said.
A woman was severely injured in the shooting, and the driver’s side of the car was hit by multiple bullets, according to the release.
The woman’s injuries required surgeries to her skull, forehead, left eye, and jaw area, and several bullet fragments remain in her skull that doctors were unable to remove, the solicitor’s office said.
The children were uninjured, but one bullet hit a baby car seat, according to the release.
Several other people on I-26 witnessed the gunfire and called 911 before Fanning drove away on Interstate 77 at a high speed, the solicitor’s office said.
Information on a motive for the shooting was not made available by the solicitor’s office.
Fanning was also arrested on charges of discharging firearm into vehicle, while occupied; possession of a weapon during violent crime; and five counts of attempted murder, Lexington County court records show.
The solicitor’s office said Fanning received the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison on the assault and battery conviction, and he is not eligible for parole, according to South Carolina law.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant Solicitor Angela G. Martin.
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This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 3:37 PM.
