SC man was parked near a Publix with a rifle. He was arrested, sheriff says
A man was arrested on gun and drug charges following reports of a suspicious person with a gun near a Publix grocery store, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department announced.
A call to the sheriff’s department around 11:30 a.m. on the Fourth of July described a man armed with a rifle sitting inside of a vehicle under the Publix sign near Hardscrabble and Lee roads. Authorities arrested 27-year-old Jimmear Starks, according to the sheriff’s department.
Deputies found Starks at the 4600 block of Hardscrabble Road in his vehicle, with a rifle, officials said. The vehicle was full of smoke and smelled strongly of marijuana. They detained Starks and conducted a search, and found a handgun and “large amounts of narcotics,” the sheriff’s department said. An investigation revealed that the rifle in Starks’ possession was stolen from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Starks was charged with unlawful possession of a sawed-off rifle, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
“This is an excellent example of ‘see something, say something,’” Sheriff Leon Lott said in a news release. “Thanks to a concerned citizen that was willing to speak up, we were able to recover a stolen firearm and narcotics that would’ve otherwise been sent into our community.”
Starks was taken to Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. He was granted a $30,000 surety bond, but was still in custody as of Monday afternoon.
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