Sheriff says Richland Hispanic community had ‘weeks of terror’ in armed robbery spree
At least 23 people in Richland County’s Hispanic communities have been robbed at gunpoint over the last three weeks and now two suspects have been arrested, according to the Sheriff Leon Lott.
Police believe Charles Clippard, 24, and Michael Knox, 25, may be connected to 17 armed robberies that happened in Richland County, Columbia and Forest Acres.
Deputies charged Clippard with four counts of armed robbery, four counts of kidnapping, first degree assault and battery, first degree burglary and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in one incident.
Knox is charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in a separate incident.
Deputies jailed both at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, where they remained as of Tuesday afternoon.
At a news conference Tuesday, Lott described Clippard and Knox as “wolves.”
“The sheep were our Hispanic community,” Lott said.
According to deputies, on Feb. 6, Clippard and another man, armed with guns, wearing ski masks and all black clothes, kicked in the door of a home on the 8500 block of Old Percival Road, which is in an area with a large Hispanic community. They demanded money and cell phones from people inside the home and threatened to kill them.
On Jan. 30, Knox was one of two men who put a gun to a man’s head as he got out of his car at his house on the 400 block of Percival Road, deputies said. They demanded money and the victim’s car keys.
Clippard and Knox are also suspected in 11 other Richland County armed robberies between Jan. 19 and Feb. 6. In nearly all of the cases, cash and cell phones were stolen and the victims were Hispanic.
At least five of the robberies happened between Friday and Sunday, Lott said.
The Columbia Police Department is investigating if Clippard and Knox are connected to three armed robberies in the city. The Forest Acres Police Department is looking into whether the two are connected to one of its open cases.
The robbers often held up people at the end of the week, when the victims had just been paid by their employers, Lott said.
Hispanic communities of Richland County, particularly in northeast Columbia, endured “three solid weeks of terror,” Lott said.
“Often times, crimes against Hispanic victims go unreported because they’re afraid to come forward. We need to change that. We want them to know that they can trust us and feel comfortable reporting crime,” Lott said in a statement released after the news conference. “In these cases, it’s because of the victims that came forward that we were able to make these arrests.”
At the news conference, Major Maria Yturria read a statement in Spanish that summarized the armed robberies and asked for people in Hispanic communities to contact the sheriff’s department if they’ve been a victim of a crime.
Repeat Offenders
At the news conference, Lott was quick to point a finger at the criminal justice system for what he described as allowing Clippard and Knox to continue to commit crimes.
Clippard and Knox both have prior records and were out on bond for recent charges when the armed robberies occurred, according to Lott and court records.
Between 2017 and 2019, Clippard pleaded guilty to first degree assault and battery, burglary, strong arm robbery, having a stolen vehicle and gun offenses, records showed. He was out on bond for charges from 2020 of having tools used for stealing and two gun offenses.
Police previously charged Knox with burglary and, in 2018, resisting arrest and receiving stolen goods. He was out on bond on the latter charges and has failed to appear in court, records showed.
Lott expressed anger at bond and light sentences being giving to people that the sheriff’s department arrests multiple times.
“At some point our criminal justice system has to stand up and say enough is enough,” Lott said. “Unfortunately not all those in the criminal justice system beyond [the sheriff’s department] see these victims.”
People who are in prison aren’t being rehabilitated before being released, Lott said.
“I’m not sure we have any rehabilitation going on,” Lott said, adding that financial restraints stop the South Carolina prison system from having effective rehabilitation programs.
The prison system “is just a warehouse,” Lott said.
The State tried to reached an attorney for Knox but one is not yet publicly listed. Clippard is represented by Richland County’s public defenders office.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 12:32 PM.