Gunmen terrorize SC mall, suburban town in separate gunfights. Watch the videos
A mother laid on the floor next to her baby’s overturned stroller inside a Columbia Place Mall store as four people waged a gun battle just a few feet away.
The scene unfolded last week as the mother and other unsuspecting customers were shopping. A video released by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department shows the mother hovering over her baby as more than 20 bullets were fired overhead.
It was one of two gun battles waged in Richland County last week. The other was in Blythewood, where more than 60 shots were fired during a high school prom after party.
Sheriff Leon Lott discussed the two gun battles during a news conference on Friday, where he once again decried youth gun violence in the county.
“She’s just a shopper,” Lott said of the mother. “She’s in there shopping and she’s caught in the middle of a gunfight, and those who are firing those rounds have absolutely no concern for her safety or that baby’s safety whatsoever. Hopefully the baby wasn’t old enough to realize what was happening, but (the mother) will be traumatized forever.”
Thankfully, neither the mother nor her baby were physically injured, Lott said.
“You watch these so called gangsters run around here with these guns shooting and (they) could care less where the bullets are going; they’re just shooting,” Lott said.
The mall shootout involved three shooters teaming up to battle one, who Lott identified as Grant Walls, 18. Walls was arrested and charged with breach of peace of a high and aggravated nature and possession of a stolen pistol.
Lott said deputies are continuing to search for the three remaining suspects.
“The message today is, either come in or we’re coming to get you, plain and simple,” Lott said of the suspects.
On April 2, at around 1:30 p.m., deputies responded to the Columbia Place Mall on 7201 Two Notch Road in response to an innocent bystander who’d been shot.
Four people, including Walls, fired at least 25 rounds inside a store at the mall. Two of the three suspects who remain at large were wielding pistols while a third carried a long gun, Lott said.
Walls was arrested after visiting a hospital in Orangeburg, where he said he suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Lott said that was a “lie” and that investigators found that Walls had on the same clothing as the mall shooter.
The gunfire in Blythewood broke out around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday when more than 60 rounds were fired during an after party, which had attracted 200 kids, according to Lott. He described the event as a “pop-up” party, which was advertised on social meeting. Attendees were urged to bring their on “booze” and “weed.”
A video released by the sheriff’s department highlights the barrage of gunfire, and shows a crowd of students running through a parking lot, losing shoes and hats, as cars sped off.
“This is something you expect to hear in Iraq or Afghanistan during a war,” Lott said. “This is a war zone that these kids turned the Town of Blythewood into.”
The shooting, which took place in an area densely packed with retail businesses and restaurants between Interstate 77 and U.S. 21/Main Street, resulted in damage to multiple businesses and at least two people being shot.
One victim who had been shot in the lower body was given life-saving treatment until EMS took them to an area hospital, the sheriff’s department said.
In a crowd of young people, Lott said, deputies identified a man wearing an ankle monitor who was out on bond for murder.
“These are the type of individuals that took over the Town of Blythewood this past weekend,” Lott said.
Two high school students have been arrested in connection with the shooting: Nahjere Suber, 18, and Darell Birch, 18. They were both charged with breach of peace of a high and aggravated nature.
“What I’m asking is parents who see this video and recognize your child or know your child was there, you need to contact us, because if you don’t, then at four o’clock in the morning you’re going to get a knock on your door and somebody’s going to go to jail,” Lott said.
Lott said one of the vehicles at the shooting was a black Maserati.
“I don’t think any of these kids probably own the Maserati, so that belongs to a parent,” Lott said. “That parent and that kid who’s driving that car needs to come in, because we’re going to find you too.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 3:58 PM.
