Deputies arrested a 25-year-old east Camden man on several charges after leading them on car chase around 3 p.m. April 20 that reached 100 mph at one point while his two children, a 1-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl were in the vehicle.
According to a Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) report, a deputy patrolling east Camden saw a white Chevy Impala circling through the Fairfax neighborhood several times. The deputy reported actually getting close enough behind the car to smell marijuana coming from it. At that point, the deputy conducted a traffic stop in the median of the 1600 block of Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. 1). When the deputy had fully exited their patrol car, however, the man reportedly took off at a high rate of speed.
The deputy gave chase as the Impala headed toward the Camden city limits, with the suspect driving at 100 mph while passing vehicles in the median. The suspect and deputy ended up going through traffic lights at both McRae and DeLoach streets. At that point, the suspect began to slow down and reportedly slammed on their brakes in an attempt to turn right on Wateree Avenue, but was traveling too fast and left the roadway driving up on to the sidewalk, striking a mailbox and ending up in someone’s front yard.
Despite now having a flat tire, the left the yard and began traveling through the neighborhood at more than 50 mph, disregarding the stop sign at Hasty Road. As the chase continued toward Crestmont Drive, the deputy saw what appeared to be plastic baggie flung out of the passenger side window. When the suspect tried to turn left on Crestmont, the left front tire came all the way off, driving on its rim, forcing the car to come to a stop. The deputy used his patrol car to pin the driver’s door.
The deputy ordered the driver and passenger out of the vehicle at gunpoint, but then heard the suspect yelling, “Please, no, my kids are in the car.” The deputy could see the 4-year-old girl standing up next to the driver. The deputy went to the open window, extracted the suspect’s hand and cuffed it. The man refused to exit the Impala until ordered to do so with the threat of a Taser. “The subject was large, so we squeezed out of the door between my patrol car and the suspect’s car,” the deputy reported. The man’s daughter exited the car behind him. The deputy finished handcuffing the suspect while a city of Camden police officer detained the passenger. Under these circumstances, the deputy decided to place the young girl with her father in the patrol car. He then realized the 1-year-old boy was in a car seat.
As other deputies and officers arrived on the scene, they found a bag of marijuana. They also found a black case with two glass jars with marijuana residue on them inside, along with a digital scale, box of plastic baggies, scissors and a grinder. There appeared to be approximately 25 grams of marijuana in the bag.
The children’s mother came to the scene and took custody of them. Deputies released the passenger from the scene with no charges.
However, they took the suspect to jail and charged him with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, failure to stop for blue lights, and child endangerment. “I believe if his tire had not blown, he would have continued to flee and the outcome of this pursuit could have been devastating if an accident had happened,” the deputy wrote in his report.
The suspect is free on a total $5,440 bond.
The KCSO also reported the following recent incidents:
Deputies arrested a 49-year-old Cassatt man for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature on the evening of April 16 after allegedly hitting a 38-year-old Bethune man in the head with a baseball bat. Although the assault allegedly took place on Porter Road, a deputy met with the victim at an Etters Lane location and found him “bleeding from his head in multiple places” and that he a “good amount” of dried blood on his chest. The victim’s girlfriend said they were sleeping when they were awakened by the suspect as he hit her boyfriend. The responding deputy described the victim as having a “severe gaping wound on his forehead” along with three other raised wounds on his scalp, as well as several welts on his back consistent with the barrel of a baseball bat. Deputies then went to where the assault allegedly took place and found the suspect. He claimed he had become “tired of all the druggies” living in his sister’s house. Although he does not live with the victim or his sister, he admitted to entering the home and finding the victim sleeping next to the woman, but then claimed he became very angry and “blacked out.” He also claimed that the victim became verbally combative with him and struck him in the face, but the responding deputy reported not seeing any evidence of this. At this point, deputies arrested the man and took him to jail. The responding deputy later learned that the victim was being transferred to Richland County for bleeding on the brain.
Deputies arrested a 28-year-old Camden man on various charges after getting into an argument with a woman at her residence on White Pond Road near Elgin. The man allegedly punctured a tire on the woman’s car and demanded she come outside, which she refused to do, telling deputies she knew the man had a gun in his pocket. Responding deputies learned the man was on Fort Jackson Road at White Pond Road and made contact with him there. As soon as deputies arrived, the man put his hands in the air. When asked if he had a pistol, he confirmed that he did and directed a deputy to his right front pants pocket. During a further search, a deputy found a loaded magazine in the man’s left front pocket. In addition, the man admitted he also had a box of .45 caliber bullets, which the deputy found along with numerous beers. Deputies took the man to jail and charged with malicious injury to property, public disorderly conduct, and the unlawful carrying of a firearm.
Deputies are assisting the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in investigating an allegation that a woman living in Kershaw County inflicted injuries on her 3-year-old son while she had him for visitation. Bruising on his buttocks was severe enough that the child was taken to a children’s hospital emergency department in Columbia. The boy’s father had him tested for drugs, which came back positive for cocaine. The Department of Social Services is also involved due to concerns for a 1-month-old child who is supposed to be living in the woman’s home.
A man living on North Marion Street reported on the night of April 3 that when he came home he found a man inside whom he described as a drug dealer. He said the suspect was trying to unplug his Xbox. The man said he yelled at the suspect, who then fled in an older green Ford Explorer. He said the suspect did manage to take $60 cash.
An east Camden woman said a male acquaintance from Camden admitted to taking a .380 semi-automatic pistol from her home she kept for protection. She said he contacted her and admitted he’d taken it after his home was robbed to inform her it was one of the things that was stolen.
Deputies arrested a 27-year-old Elgin man for public disorderly conduct and malicious injury to real property after he allegedly used yellow spray paint to deface a stop sign at Lynhurst Drive and Hilton Street in east Camden on the afternoon of April 12.
A man living in the Bridle Ridge Apartment complex said he mishandled a 20-gauge shotgun causing it to accidentally fire, shooting into the roof and through the floor of the apartment above his on April 14.
A Rembert woman claims a male co-worker threatened to kill her and assaulted her by pushing her in the back while she was working at one of the county’s high schools for the school district’s janitorial contractor on April 2.
Someone pried open the back door to a Lockhart Road residence on April 20 and stole three glass jars containing various amounts of change from the kitchen and a pistol from the victim’s bedroom dresser.
Sometime between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. April 7, someone broke into a home on Westview Drive in Cassatt and stole a generator, 14-inch chop saw, skill saw, 3/8 drill and a handgun.
The KCSO is investigating a claim that a 17-year-old boy living in the West Wateree part of the county sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl following a date in mid-April.
A man living on Dowey Circle in Lugoff reported that someone stole a 12-gauge pump shotgun from his boat in the front yard sometime between April 4 and April 11.
Someone stole a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle from the bedroom of a Porter Road, Cassatt residence sometime between March 8 and April 8.
A man living on Smyrl Circle in Camden reported that someone stole a handgun he keeps in a plastic case under his bed sometime on or before April 13.
Investigators are looking into allegations that a boy who now lives in Kershaw County was molested by his stepfather in another state several years ago.
(KCSO reports are provided under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act. Subjects are considered innocent until proven guilty.)
