Gun-related murders doubled in Richland County in 2021, sheriff says
Murders by gunfire increased 100% in 2021 from the year before, Sheriff Leon Lott said Thursday.
“We got to do more to reduce the violence we got with young people,” Lott said during a news conference at the Richland County Sheriff’s Department headquarters.
Richland County had 32 murders by gunfire in 2021, according to the sheriff’s department. The majority of shooters were 16 to 21 years old and the majority of victims were 22 to 30 years old.
According to Lott, the fatal shootings included 12 domestic incidents, eight drug deals turned into robberies, seven retaliatory shootings and three robberies not involving drugs. Two others were gang related.
Deputies have made arrests in all but one of last year’s murder cases, Lott said. In that one case, investigators know the shooter but are still looking for him.
In total, Richland County had 113 fatal and non fatal shootings in 2021, Lott said. In 2020, the county had 88 shootings.
Those numbers don’t include shootings inside Columbia’s city limits.
South Carolina state police, who compile crime data, predicted that 2021 would have more murders than the previous year. In 2020, more people were murdered in the state than in any other year on record, Chief Mark Keel of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said.
Stolen guns factor into the murders in Richland County. In December, The State reported that the climbing number of shootings in Richland County went along side an increase in stolen guns.
Overall, crime was down 9 % because of a decrease in property crime, such as break-ins and larceny, Lott said.
Lott closed the new conference by listing the names of the shooting victims.
“These are 32 families that will never be the same,” he said. “These are the names we need to remember.”
The fatal shooting victims were:
- Ryan Knight
- Laquan Boatwright
- Brandon Burden
- Raeneisha Nixon
- Shannon Brown
- Charles Lilly
- Ashli Haigler
- Jeremy Duncan
- Charles Fulk
- Charlie Jackson
- Braeden Heath
- Shantarius Thompson
- John Kelly
- Lee Grimball
- David Green
- Daquan Davis
- Andre Young
- Rodney Mayers
- Stephon Greene
- Jamil Moore
- Genesis Williams
- Maurice Walters
- Malik Gray
- Gerald Knighter
- Phyllis Sprague
- Antuan Quinn
- Christian Watson
- Alvin Moreno
- Tracy Weeks
- Elijahwon Ferguson-Gates
- Joyel Snell
- Arturo Valdez-Miguel
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 12:11 PM.