A 16-year-old has been arrested in a shooting that left two people dead in Lower Richland, according to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.
Sheriff’s deputies tracked and arrested the teen in Atlanta following a shooting that left a pair of 22-year-old Columbia residents dead. Dominic Goodwin and Xavier J. Hopkins were shot in a car in the 300 block of Hickory Ridge Drive. A third person was injured during the shooting but survived.
“I’ve said it many times, young people with guns will end up in one of two places, the cemetery or prison,” Lott. said. “This case was solved and an arrest was made within eight days. We actually knew one of the shooters very quickly. He thought that he could hide in Atlanta and be safe outside the Columbia area, but that didn’t happen. We tracked him all the way to the Atlanta area and made the arrest two days ago.”
The suspect has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, Lott said.
On the night of the shooting on July 9, deputies arrived on the scene around 10 p.m. and found a vehicle in a yard with two unresponsive victims inside, according to a news release. They were later identified as Goodwin and Hopkins.
Both EMS and the Columbia Fire Department also responded, and it was determined that the men in the car were dead, the sheriff’s department said.
A third shooting victim was located inside the home and taken to an area hospital, according to the release. The sheriff’s department said that person was shot multiple times and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, but further information on their condition was not available.
Multiple shell casings were found in the road, according to an incident report.
Lott said the motive for the shooting likely centered around a vendetta between the shooter and the victims. The investigation, he said, is ongoing, as investigators are looking into other suspects.
Most Popular
Comments / 0