Third person arrested in SC mall shooting has bond hearing. Here’s what happened
A judge denied bond to a third person arrested in a shooting at a Columbia-area mall Saturday that resulted in more than a dozen people hurt.
Columbia Municipal Judge Jessica Mangum ruled that 21-year-old Amari Sincere-Jamal Smith would remain in jail.
The Columbia Police Department charged Smith with attempted murder, nine counts of aggravated assault and battery, and unlawful gun carrying, according to Lexington County Detention Center records.
The department alleges that Smith, along with two others, came into Columbiana Centre mall in Harbison on Saturday carrying guns. The three exchanged gunfire, resulting in nine people being shot and six others being hurt as people fled from the gunfire.
Mangum said anyone who would bring a gun to a mall and fire it was “an incredible danger to the community” and that she found Smith to be a flight risk because police searched for him for four days before he turned himself in.
Police previously charged Jewayne M. Price, 22, and Marquise Love Robinson, 20, on the same charges in the days following the shooting. A judge denied both bond.
Smith turned himself in to police, the department said.
The victims range in age from 15 to 73, police said. The 73-year-old woman was the only victim who was continuing to receive medical treatment at a local hospital as of Thursday, a prosecutor said.
At the hearing, Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes of the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office gave more details about the shooting.
Smith and Robinson have had a dispute with Price since 2018, she said. Smith wore a ski mask during the shooting. At one point, Smith was firing with a bystander in his line of fire, according to Mayes. If not for going to the ground, the bystander would have been struck by a bullet.
“There wasn’t a fight. Not even a fist was swung,” Mayes said. “All parties drew guns to resolve a conflict.”
The parents of a victim, who Mayes said was shot inches from her spine, were in the courtroom. Another victim who was shot in the thigh was at the hearing with his wife as well as another victim who had a bandaged ankle.
Police have seized two guns they believe were used in the shooting, and the weapons along with other evidence will be processed at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division lab, Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said.
One of those guns was stolen out of Kershaw County, Mayes said at Thursday’s bond hearing.
Police have not found the gun that they believe Smith used, Mayes said. But investigators say they have a photo from social media of Smith holding a gun and wearing the same hoodie and ski mask that he allegedly wore during the mall shooting. Investigators believe the gun in the photo is the same gun Smith used, according to Mayes.
At the bond hearing, Smith told the judge that he had lived in Columbia all 21 years of his life and that his mother’s side of the family all lived in Richland County. He said he was a 2019 graduate of Lower Richland High School.
Smith waived his right to a public defender, saying he had lawyer lined up.
He said “I apologize,” before the judge cut him off. She had previously told Smith that she didn’t want to hear about the shooting and that she only wanted him to speak about if he was a flight risk or danger to the community.
Holbrook said police are still seeking information from people who were at the mall on Saturday.
“This was a traumatic event, and sometimes it takes time for something to register or to remember something,” Holbrook said. “Every little piece of information is helpful.”
Anyone with information can call police at (803) 545-3525.
Attempted murder, the most severe of Smith’s charges, is punishable with up to 30 years in prison.
Reporter Noah Feit contributed to this story.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Third person arrested in SC mall shooting has bond hearing. Here’s what happened."