Elgin Police Department (EPD) officers assisted other agencies on a number of occasions during the past several weeks.
Just before 11 p.m. Feb. 11, an Elgin officer heard a Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) deputy attempt to pull over a car that was not stopping on Smyrna Road. Just as the officer arrived in the area to put out spike strips, the suspect, a 34-year-old Hopkins man, pulled over. The officer asked the deputy if they needed any help, and the deputy asked if the EPD’s K9, Nala, could be deployed. As the officer went to get the dog, the deputy found a small clear baggie containing what appeared to be marijuana on the suspect’s person. The dog also indicated “hits” on the front passenger door and the backseat area of the interior. A further search turned up several additional marijuana joints.
EPD K9 Nala assisted KCSO deputies again around 12:30 a.m. Feb. 18 during another traffic stop. This time, she “hit” on what appeared a marijuana sent in a vehicle that had been stopped. A deputy turned up a “vape pen” in the car.
County deputies asked for K9 Nala’s help again during a traffic stop right in front of Elgin Town Hall just before 5 p.m. Feb. 25. This time, she hit on what appeared to be marijuana inside a glass container inside the suspect’s vehicle.
Around 11 a.m. Feb. 12, dispatchers sent an officer to a Church Street address to assist with an EMS call. There, EMS personnel advised then found a patient living in “hazardous and unsanitary” conditions. The officer noted the address has shown up in referrals the EPD has made to the Department of Social Services (DSS) and S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. The officer reported that DSS came to the scene and followed the patient to the hospital, but later informed the EPD the patient would have to return to the home temporarily as they did not have a placement for the man.
On Feb. 12, around 9:45 p.m., an officer spotted a 35-year-old Elgin man sitting in pickup truck at the parking lot of the BP station on Main Street. The man said he was waiting on his girflfriend who was working inside. When the man identified himself, the officer remembered that the man was wanted by the KCSO. Dispatchers confirmed deputies had two warrants on the man in reference to child support. A deputy arrived on the scene and took the man into custody.
An Elgin officer stopped another man wanted by deputies for failing to pay child support during a traffic stop around 7:45 p.m. Feb. 23. The man also gave a false name at first, but when confronted said he had done so because of the warrant against him. A deputy arrived and took him to jail.
At about 4:30 p.m. Feb. 20, an EPD officer assisted deputies with a traffic stop on the 900 block of Jeffers Road. Deputies had the officer search a female subject due to alleged drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. The officer found nothing on the 23-year-old, but deputies took the 30-year-old male driver into custody for outstanding probation warrants out of Horry County.
A little after 9 a.m. Feb. 23, an officer conducted a traffic stop at the intersection of Main Street and Greenhill Road involving a 20-year-old Columbia woman. Dispatchers advised the officer the woman was wanted out of Richland County for third-degree assault and battery and malicious injury to personal property.
Around 1:45 a.m. Feb. 27, an Elgin officer assisted at a Jeffers Road home where the family had called EMS due to a 3-year-old having respiratory problems. The officer stayed on the scene until EMS arrived. After clearing the scene, the officer then went to check on a 911 hangup on Church Street regarding a man with chest pains. The man did appear to be in pain, according to the officer, and the man’s roommate said he had been having chest pains for about a month. Another EMS unit arrived and took that man to the hospital.
Finally, an officer assisted deputies with a traffic stop on March 3 around 1:30 a.m. by conducting a search of a 22-year-old Columbia woman who had marijauna in her car.
