Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) deputies located a young boy from Bishopville on U.S. 1 just on Lugoff side of the Wateree River around 9:20 a.m. April 7. The boy told deputies he had left his home that morning in Lee County around sunrise and a stranger picked him up and dropped him off at the Walmart in Camden. He then decided to keep walking to Lugoff.
The deputy took the boy to KCSO headquarters and called a Department of Social Services (DSS) to meet them there. Meanwhile, a Lee County deputy went to the boy’s house where the child’s father wanted him listed as a runaway.
While waiting for his father to come to Lugoff, the boy claimed he left home because he got in trouble for feeding the dog late and that his father kicked him in the rear when he went to make the dog’s food. He said that when the dog didn’t eat, he was told to put up not only the dog’s food, but his own, so he could not eat.
A Kershaw County DSS worker made contact with their counterpart in Lee County to make sure the child is taken care of, and when the father came to pick up the boy, the Kershaw County caseworker followed them to their Lee County home to meet the other caseworker there.
The KCSO also reported the following recent incidents:
Deputies arrested a 19-year-old Elgin woman and her 20-year-old ex-boyfriend from Cassatt for breach of peace at the residence they both once lived in on the afternoon of April 6. The woman, listed as the original complainant, asked to meet with a deputy so she could be escorted back to the residence to retrieve items she said belonged to her that she left after breaking up with her boyfriend. When the deputy and woman arrived, three women exited the home and immediately began claiming the younger woman had nothing left inside and could not come on their property. They were soon joined by the ex-boyfriend, with whom the woman had lived at the residence. An argument ensued, during which the deputy had the young woman returned to his patrol car so he could continue speaking with the women and ex-boyfriend. At about the same time that one of the women’s daughters agreed to go inside and retrieve the items, the complainant exited the patrol car and began shouting and cursing at her ex-boyfriend and the women, ignoring the deputy’s request to get back to the car. He then handcuffed and placed in the patrol car. After finding out exactly what she claimed had been left inside, the deputy went up to the home to go inside and make sure everything was being retrieved. However, one of the women -- identified as the ex-boyfriend’s mother -- refused to get out of his way. After asking several times, he placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to move her. At this point, the young man shouted, “Don’t touch my mom,” and reportedly ran up the stairs in an aggressive manner behind the deputy. As the young man touched the deputy on the shoulder, the deputy grabbed his right wrist and used his own momentum to take him to the ground. He quickly handcuffed the young man, got him off the ground and escorted him to the patrol car as well. Other deputies soon arrived on the scene and they were able to successfully retrieve the young woman’s belongings, including items for her baby.
Deputies arrested a 26-year-old Batesburg man on charges of breaking into a motor vehicle, driving under suspension and possession of a stolen vehicle on the afternoon of April 3. According to a KCSO report, deputies responded to a report of a purse being stolen out of a vehicle at a Boulware Road, Lugoff business and began searching the area, and then learned that the suspect’s vehicle -- described as a white 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier -- had just left the scene. While traveling down North Marion Street, one of the deputies caught sight of the car and turned into a fenced in area. As the car attempted to circle around, the deputy could see the driver, who fit the description of the suspect. The man came to a stop and began looking out the passenger window, trying to avoid the deputy’s gaze. The deputy then got out of his patrol vehicle, drew his pistol and confronted the suspect, who complied with all orders in order to be detained. Near where the vehicle stopped, the deputy found the victim’s purse. In addition, the suspect’s car turned out to be stolen from out of Lexington County.
On April 4, two KCSO investigators were in the Camden IGA retrieving video for a case when a 27-year-old Camden woman entered the store and handed a check to a manager to be cashed. The woman received $100 back and left the store. One of the investigators, who had been working on an unrelated forged check case, asked to examine the check and found that it had been written on a business account belonging to a man with the same last name. The investigator contacted a deputy who is familiar with the family and learned that the man whose name was on the check -- the suspect’s father -- had passed away 10 years ago. The deputy contacted the family and spoke to the woman’s mother who said she thought she had burned all the old checks and confirmed the account is no longer active. IGA also advised the deputy that the woman had come in the day before and cashed a similar check, also for $100. According to online court records, the woman turned herself in on forgery charges on April 7; a bonding company posted a $2,500 bond for her release.
A deputy responded to a shots fired call on Barlow Drive in Lugoff around 10 p.m. April 6. A man living in the area told the deputy a truck had been sitting in the entrance to his driveway with the lights off. He said when he went to investigate, he heard several shots from a small caliber firearm that seemed to come from the direction of the truck. At that point, he ran to his own truck and retrieved his 9mm handgun and returned fire as the other truck fled the scene. A neighbor said the truck had pulled onto his property and then backed up and stopped, turning the lights off in the first man’s driveway. He said he fired four shots from his porch into the ground as a warning to the people in the truck. He said that’s when the truck left and when he heard his neighbor firing at the truck.
Deputies took a 37-year-old Elgin man into custody and charged him with criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature after he allegedly threatened to kill her during an argument during which he allegedly pulled out a gun and stuck it in her mouth on the evening of April 5. When deputies arrived, they found the woman on the porch and asked her where the gun was and she told them to check her husband’s truck. They found a Smith & Wesson magazine with nine .40 caliber guns, but no rounds. Learning that the man had tried unsuccessfully to leave on his motorcycle, deputies headed toward a shed and found his .40 caliber handgun. They found the man so grossly intoxicated that EMS transported him for treatment before he could be transported to the county jail for processing.
Sometime before 4 p.m. April 2, someone stole a utility trailer from a Bishopville Highway, east Camden residence. The victim described the trailer as black, 16-foot dual-axle flatbed trailer that had been parked beside a shed. Richland County authorities later contacted Kershaw County stating that the trailer had been recovered near the Chapin exit on I-26 in Lexington County, and that it had been damaged in a wreck. The Richland County officials said two men had been pulling the trailer with a truck.
Deputies are checking into the events surrounding what a 26-year-old Sumter man was an accidental shooting that left him with a gunshot wound to the leg. The victim said he and a 28-year-old Cassatt man had been playing with a handgun when it went off. Deputies spoke to the man while he was being treated at KershawHealth on April 4. He said the incident took place “a few nights” earlier, and that he had tried to take care of the wound himself, but it had become infected.
(KCSO reports are provided under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act. Subjects are considered innocent until proven guilty.)
