Teenager shot at party in Columbia and man with criminal history charged, sheriff says
A teenager was shot at a party in Columbia over the weekend and a man facing a separate murder charge was arrested, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said.
The suspect, Tywan Grooms, was supposed to be under house arrest with an ankle monitor after he was charged with murder in 2021.
But in the month leading up to the incident, Grooms’ monitor was repeatedly left off and uncharged for days at a time while he came and went from home at all hours of the day, Grooms’ attorney, Meghan Eigenbrot, said in court. The 5th Circuit Solicitors Office received emails about each of these violations, she said.
Last weekend’s shooting happened Saturday at about 1:30 a.m. in the 8300 block of Wilson Boulevard, the sheriff’s department said in a news release. That’s within 1.5 miles of W.J. Keenan High School and Midlands Tech’s northeast campus.
Shots were fired at a party and a 19-year-old woman in the backseat of a vehicle was hit in the upper body and mouth by gunfire, according to the sheriff’s department and court testimony.
The woman was taken to an area hospital where she was placed on a ventilator and intubated while awaiting surgery for her injuries, the sheriff’s department said. She’s in critical condition, according to the release.
Investigators said they do not believe the woman was targeted in the shooting.
No other injuries were reported.
Grooms, a 20-year-old Columbia resident, was arrested Saturday on a charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon, and was released on a $10,000 surety bond the same day, Richland County court records show.
On March 29, the sheriff’s department said Grooms was also charged with attempted murder as well as possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
On Thursday, circuit court Judge Debra McClaslin revoked Groom’s bond from his past murder charge, ordering that he be incarcerated at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
“I’m here to tell you, Mr. Grooms, this isn’t a revolving door, because I’m shutting it,” McClaslin said.
Grooms was arrested shortly after the shooting. In court, Senior Assistant Solicitor Kathryn Cavanaugh said law enforcement found a handgun with an extended clip under the seat of Grooms’ car, and the clip was partially empty. While ballistics analysis was not yet complete, Cavanaugh said, the rounds fired at the scene appeared to match the rounds from Grooms’ gun and a gun belonging to his passenger.
There was no word if Grooms is believed to be the only person who fired a weapon at the party, or if deputies are searching for possible other shooters. Information about what led to the shooting was not available.
Grooms’ GPS ankle monitor placed him at the shooting, the sheriff’s department said. McClaslin said that she counted nine violations in the month leading up to the shooting.
“I would have had a very strong conversation with him” if she’d known about the violations, his defense attorney said. But she stated that her office had not been added to the email list from Offender Management Services, which administers the ankle monitor program.
“Her job is not to babysit you,” McClaslin told Grooms, saying that he had demonstrated that he was a danger to the community.
The ankle monitor was a condition of his bond after the 2021 murder charge following another shooting at a party with a teenage victim, according to the sheriff’s department.
In addition to murder, Grooms was charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime on July 2, 2021, in the killing of 19-year-old David Green, the sheriff’s department said.
Green was celebrating graduating from high school, WIS reported. The party got out of control and swelled to as many as 70 people, Cavanaugh said in court.
Around midnight, Green and Grooms argued and Grooms shot Green in the upper body, according to the sheriff’s department. When responding deputies arrived they found Green dead.
At the bond revocation hearing, Green’s mother, Glenda Green, gave an emotional plea for McClaslin to revoke Grooms’ bond.
“My biggest regret was that I wasn’t at the first bond hearing,” Green said. Through tears, she described a 21 year career as a teacher. Grooms had been one of her students she said.
“I poured everything into the children at that school,” Green said, and “he took everything from us.”
On Sept. 2, 2021, a $100,000 surety bond with the conditions of GPS monitoring and house arrest was set, and Grooms was released on bond on Sept. 10, 2021, according to court records.
When Grooms was charged in Green’s death, he was also out on bond for weapons and drug charges from May 2021 that are also still pending, court records show.
“I think Mr. Grooms’ history speaks for itself,” Sheriff Leon Lott said in the release about last weekend’s shooting. “His ankle monitor shows him at the center of another violent crime with a weapon. He is a danger to our community and people will continue to get hurt if he is not behind bars.”
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This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 9:34 AM.
