Forest Acres shooting led to school lockdowns, now gunman in prison, officials says
A man is going to prison after shooting into a car occupied by his girlfriend and her mother, which caused multiple South Carolina schools to get locked down, according to the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
On Feb. 5, Ty’Quan Rashad Kelly pleaded guilty to attempted murder, unlawful possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm by persons convicted of certain crimes, the solicitor’s office said in a news release.
Judge Heath Taylor sentenced the 21-year-old Kelly to 17 years in a South Carolina Department of Corrections prison, according to the release.
Shooting into an occupied vehicle
The conviction happened almost exactly one year after the Feb. 3, 2025 shooting in Forest Acres, the solicitor’s office said.
That’s when Kelly’s girlfriend and her mother were arguing while the mother drove him home, according to the release. As Kelly exited the vehicle, he pulled out a handgun with an extended magazine and modifications that made the weapon capable of automatic fire and blasted multiple shots into the car through the back window, the solicitor’s office said.
Two shots struck the driver’s headrest, but did not penetrate it or strike the victim, according to the release.
No injuries were reported, but the girlfriend and her mother were mentally distressed, the Forest Acres Police Department previously said.
The shooting happened while the vehicle was leaving Ravenwood Hills Apartments in the Covenant Crossing area, according to police. That’s near the intersection of Bethel Church Road and Covenant Road. The vehicle stopped about a mile away at Bradley Elementary School, police said.
Officers responded to Kelly’s residence after the shooting, but he jumped from a second-story window to temporarily escape, according to the solicitor’s office. Kelly was taken into custody after an undercover deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department saw him walking near Bradley Elementary, police said.
As a precaution, several schools in Forest Acres area — Brockman, Timmerman, Harmony and Bradley Elementary, as well as The Therapy Place — were on lockdown following the gunfire, according to police.
There was a large law enforcement presence in the area that included a drone and a K9 unit from the sheriff’s department. During the search a gun was recovered near the scene of the shooting, police said.
The victims identified it as the gun used in the shooting, which investigators determined had been stolen from Lexington County, according to the solicitor’s office.
Assistant Solicitors Joseph Kreush and Cecil Jackson led the prosecution for the solicitor’s office. Jonathan Fox with the public defender’s office was listed as Kelly’s attorney, Richland County court records show.
Criminal history
Kelly was out on bond from a previous arrest when the 2025 shooting occurred. He was one of the people taken into custody after a mass shooting at a Columbia park, the sheriff’s department said.
On April 29, 2023, 11 people, most of them teenagers, were hurt in a shooting and stampede at Meadowlake Park, the sheriff’s department said.
Prior to the mass shooting at the park, Kelly had been arrested twice since March 1, 2023, on weapons charges, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott previously said. Kelly was released after bond was set at $2,500 and then $50,000 after those arrests, according to Lott.
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This story was originally published February 8, 2026 at 10:42 AM.
