Four shot, one dead in downtown Columbia home. Suspect still at large
Four people were shot leaving one dead in a house in Columbia’s downtown Elmwood Park neighborhood early Friday morning. Three others were wounded and taken to the hospital.
No motive for the shooting has been made public.
No arrest had been made by late Friday afternoon, but police said there may be “more than one” suspect at large.
Police characterized those who were shot as “young adults” and said more information will be made public when it can.
The Columbia Police Department received a call for shots fired at 5:15 a.m. at 2408 Lincoln Street in the historic neighborhood just north of downtown. Two females and one male were injured, one male was killed, at a party in a short-term rental, according to police.
Police were in the neighborhood investigating a car break-in when calls about the shooting came in shortly after 5 a.m. Friday.
Officers two blocks away were able to respond immediately to the shooting, police said.
They arrived to find a “chaotic” scene inside of the home, Columbia Police Chief William H. “Skip” Holbrook said at the scene Friday morning.
Holbrook said police did not believe there was a threat to the neighborhood at this time.
Law enforcement described the home as an Airbnb.
An Airbnb listing for this property appeared on Google search but was not accessible mid-morning Friday. A listing for the home was available for rent on VRBO, a competitor that similarly offers short-term rentals of homes through an online platform, as well as through the website of real estate management company The Traylor Team. The listing’s rules state that no unapproved additional overnight guests are allowed on the property.
“It’s terrible. People are disturbed to hear about this, as everyone should be, its a tragic situation,” said Columbia City Councilman Tyler Bailey, who lives just blocks away from the site of shooting.
No motive is known at this time but it was believed that the victims and assailant or assailants knew each other, said Holbrook, adding they did not believe there was a threat to the neighborhood at this time.
The handsome tree-lined blocks around Lincoln Street are primarily small apartments and single-family houses and are home to several county, city and state elected officials. This unexpected act of violence in the quiet neighborhood has inflamed simmering tensions over short-term rentals.
“We are looking for the people that did this but we do not believe that it was neighborhood-centric,” Holbrook said Friday morning.
“They’re going to catch them,” predicted state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, who lives just blocks from the shooting. “As a criminal defense lawyer, I can say they’re going to catch them, they catch everybody... this is not New York, Detroit or Chicago, they’re going to catch them.”
It was not the only fatal shooting in Columbia overnight. In a separate incident, a male was fatally shot at the 7500 block of Garners Ferry Road, according to the Columbia Police Department.
In that shooting, Bernard Jackson, 53, was arrested by Columbia police later Friday and charged with manslaughter and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
The victim was identified by the Richland County Coroner’s Office as Wendell F. Sholar, 33, who worked at the ‘S. Bar and Grill’ on 7535 Garners Ferry Road.
What happened?
In the Elmwood Park shootoing, official details are spare at this point, but neighbors described the early-morning violence that shattered the calm of the normally quiet neighborhood.
Evan Twilley, who lives directly next door to where the shooting occurred, made a 911 call after being wakened by her dog.
Around 5:10 a.m. Friday, Twilley said she rushed down her stairs after hearing her dog aggressively barking, which, she said, is unusual.
”I opened the door and saw a gentleman getting into what I would call a runaway car, but I was under the assumption that he had just burglarized my neighbor’s truck because I saw the toolbox open,” Twilley said.
It wasn’t until Twilley encountered another neighbor walking their dog that she determined the suspected burglary was actually a shooting.
”When [my neighbor and I] made that connection, I changed my call when I was on 911 from a burglary to a shooting, because I then saw that there was a hole in the window [of the house next door] and there were people inside the home that were screaming, and police were here really quickly after that.”
Twilley, who’s lived in the neighborhood for over 10 years, has a 5-year-old son, and said it’s the first time she’s ever experienced anything like what happened early Friday morning.
”It’s a downtown neighborhood, and in living down here you expect that there are some things that are going to happen, but I don’t think anybody expects this to happen. I love living downtown, and I hate that something like this is going to stain our neighborhood and stay in the area.”
‘The greatest neighborhood in the city.’
One of the oldest neighborhoods in Columbia, Elmwood Park and the adjacent Earlewood neighborhood were among the first communities built outside of Columbia’s historic planned grid.
Just north of the busy Elmwood Avenue, which connects to the Interstate 26 and has become a flash point for debates about homelessness in the capital city, Elmwood is known as a calm, quiet neighborhood. It’s known for a tight-knit community, boasting a park, an elementary school and historic Southern homes with wide porches where neighbors sit and greet those walking past.
“We’ve branded ourselves Columbia’s front porch community. ... Nothing like this has ever happened here,” Wilkinson said.
“I think Elmwood Park is a great neighborhood, I think it’s the greatest neighborhood in the city,” said Councilman Tyler Bailey.
Within blocks of the shooting live some of Columbia’s most prominent local, county and statewide elected officials. But it’s a sign that Columbia’s problem with gun violence can touch any neighborhood said Bailey.
“Summertime always brings a different environment in Columbia,” Bailey said. Law enforcement officials have said that violence, especially shootings, tend to spike in the summer with young people out of school. In 2023, 11 people were injured during a mass shooting at a gathering at Meadowlake Park. Law enforcement at the time said that the party started at an Airbnb before moving to park in Northeast Columbia.
John Wilkinson, president of the Elmwood Park neighborhood association, said the shooting would’ve never occurred if the city council blocked short-term rentals from being established in the neighborhood.
”These short term rental companies come in and build homes in our neighborhood and it’s killing our community, literally,” Wilkinson said.
“They threw a house party and shots were fired a few feet away from where a child lives,” Wilkinson added. “We need to get these short-term rental properties out of here today.”
In 2023, after nearly two years of debate, the city of Columbia passed its first rules requiring permitting of short term rentals.
Twilley, who made the 911 call, said she’s a former owner of an Airbnb property and was initially supportive of the rental property next door to her.
But following Friday’s shooting, she expressed reservations.
”When I think of my 5-year-old son, I’m not willing to support this [short-term] rental property if it’s going to bring this type of [violence] to my community,” she said.
For his part, Rutherford, said he’s reluctant to lay the blame on the popular tech company.
“This could’ve happened anywhere, it’s just tragic that it happened there,” Rutherford said.
Both Bailey and Rutherford said the incident underscored the urgent need for more programming to combat gun violence among young people. Rutherford says it’s only gotten worse since COVID and the closure of venues around the county.
“I just firmly believe that we are going to have to give kids a reason to get together and be social,” Rutherford said.
Additional reporting contributed by John Monk.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 10:18 AM.
