2 men charged with 7-year-old’s murder over a year after his death, Columbia police say
The Columbia Police Department announced Wednesday night that it charged two people in the death of a 7-year-old boy who was shot more than a year ago.
Chief Skip Holbrook announced that the department charged 24-year-old Travon Wilson and 21-year-old Kwatez Carter. Both are charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy and other weapon charges.
Columbia police and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Wilson at 6 p.m. Wednesday about a mile from the shooting location, Holbrook said. Wilson was being interrogated at the police department Wednesday. Carter was already jailed on separate charges, according to a police spokesperson.
“This has been quite an emotional journey for Knowledge’s family” and for police officers, Holbrook said.
Knowledge Sims was killed in April 2020 on the 100 block of Tarragon Drive off Farrow Road. More than a dozen rounds were fired into his Capital Heights home, according to police. Knowledge, his sister, his mother, five other children and another adult were in the home.
Knowledge and his sister were taken to a local hospital. His sister survived, but Knowledge later died from a gunshot wound to the upper body, according to the Richland County Coroner’s Office.
Investigators never believed Knowledge was the target of the shooting and that hasn’t changed, Holbrook said. Firearms used in the shooting have been taken as evidence, he said.
Flanked by 5th Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson and Deputy Chief Melron Kelly — and with city manager Teresa Wilson and city council member Tameka Isaac Devine in attendance — Holbrook announced the charges during a news conference Wednesday night.
“There’s still work to be done” in the case, Gipson said, adding that further comment would be reserved for the courtroom.
Knowledge’s shooting rippled through a community reeling from shootings. The early failure to make an arrest after the boy’s death was cited in a department study that examined causes of protests in Columbia following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“This was not a good moment for our city,” Holbrook said about Knowledge’s shooting and the subsequent lack of help from the public in the investigation.
The charges were brought with no cooperation from the public despite pleas for tips and offers of reward money, Holbrook said. He credited the charges to rugged police work, particularly from Officer Brian Van Houten and retired investigator William Hilton, who continued to work the case after his retirement.
“This case has tugged at the heart strings of every single person” at the police department, Holbrook said.
During the press conference, Holbrook made an emotional appeal to Columbia communities to help police solve cases. He asked that people in Columbia talk to police after crimes, particularly shootings, and give police information about what they saw and know. People don’t have to give police their names, just the information they know, Holbrook said.
“This case has lingered because we have not had cooperation,” Holbrook said. “I just appeal to our citizens and say, ‘This is enough.’
“We’re better than this,” he said.
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 8:10 PM.
