‘Those bullets could have gone anywhere,’ Cayce police chief says after domestic shooting
Cayce police have charged a man with a lengthy violent criminal record after an argument turned into a shooting Tuesday, according to the police chief.
Cayce Police Department arrested 44-year-old Xavier Jones Friday and charged him with attempted murder, shooting into a home, gun possession during a violent crime, shooting while in the city limits and gun possession by a person convicted of a felony.
Monday, Jones argued with a woman while outside her house on Frink Street, Chief Chris Cowan said. Cayce police were called out to help calmed down the argument.
The next day, Jones came back to the woman’s house and argued with her again, Cowan said. She went into the house. That’s when Jones opened fired. He shot into the house where the woman and a child were, according to Cowan.
“Those bullet could have gone anywhere,” he said, “not only into the people inside the home but into any innocent bystander outside the home.”
Police started “vigorously” investigating, which resulted in Jones’ arrest.
In announcing the arrest, Cowan expressed his frustration that Jones was on the streets, saying he has a lengthy and violent criminal record.
Court records show Jones has been found guilty of a cocaine selling in 1996, cocaine possession in 2008 and aggravated assault in 2011. Last year, a judge found him guilty of unlawful gun possession. He’s also been charged but not convicted of assault others times in the 1990s and 2000s.
Cowan said his department is going to pursue Jones “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Our hope is the judicial system will keep him where he belongs, and that is in jail,” Cowan said.
Jones was jailed in the Lexington County Detention Center as of Saturday.
An attorney for Jones was not yet publicly listed.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 5:15 PM.