A teen was killed, but the Richland County sheriff said the shooting was justified
A Columbia teenager was killed, but no charges will be filed after the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said the shooting was justified.
The body of 17-year-old Keonte Smith was found at the Gable Hill Apartments on Feb. 6, the Richland County Coroner’s Office said Wednesday. That’s at 310 Ross Road, near the junction of Parklane Road and S.C. 277, and about half a mile from Farrow Road.
Deputies who were responding to reports about an unresponsive man found Smith dead inside one of the apartments, the sheriff’s department said.
Smith appeared to have been shot in the upper body, and more evidence of a shooting was found in the apartment, according to the sheriff’s department.
Deputies learned that two juveniles were at the home when they saw Smith trying to break in, the sheriff’s department said. The juveniles hid, but when Smith entered the apartment he fired at them before one of the juveniles shot back, according to the sheriff’s department.
There was no word why Smith broke into the apartment, or any motive for his gunfire.
“We continue to lose young people to gun violence,” Sheriff Leon Lott said in a news release. “This community problem will only continue until we get parents and young people involved in the solution. Let’s pray and work together before we lose another life.”
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This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 1:39 PM.
