9-year-old boy is a homicide victim, Richland County coroner says
A 9-year-old boy was killed Monday night in a shooting, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said.
Christopher Scott III was a homicide victim, Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said Tuesday.
He was a fourth-grade student at Hopkins Elementary School, according to Richland One Superintendent Dr. Craig Witherspoon.
“We were shocked and saddened to learn that one of our students was killed last night,” Witherspoon said in a news release.
At about 6:30 p.m., deputies received a call that a child had been shot in the 1000 block of Weston Road and he was being driven to an area hospital by a family member, according to the sheriff’s department. That’s in the Hopkins area, near Congaree National Park.
The child was pronounced dead upon arriving at the hospital, the sheriff’s department said.
No other injuries were reported.
Information about a shooter, or shooters, or any motive for the gunfire was not available. There was no word if the child was the intended target of the shooter.
No arrests have been reported by the sheriff’s department, which is continuing to investigate the shooting.
The Richland 1 crisis team was at Hopkins Elementary Tuesday to provide support and counseling to students and staff, according to Witherspoon.
“We extend our condolences to Christopher’s family,” Witherspoon said. “Particularly during this holiday season which is normally a time of joy, we ask everyone to join us in keeping his family in your thoughts and prayers as they mourn.”
This was the fourth deadly shooting in Richland County since the end of last week.
On Dec. 16 the Columbia Police Department reported there was a shooting where one man died and another was injured.
At about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 17, the sheriff’s department reported a person died in a shooting on Hardscrabble Road outside of a shopping center that has a Food Lion grocery store and several other businesses.
In another incident on Dec. 18, the sheriff’s department said a man was shot and killed on Kneece Road, which is just east of Decker Boulevard in northeast Columbia.
There was another incident that same morning, where the sheriff’s department said a person was hospitalized after being shot multiple times at a bar/private club on Leesburg Road. Further information on that shooting victim’s condition was not available.
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This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 7:25 AM.
