COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 19-year-old has been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting in Irmo earlier this month that left two dead and one person injured.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said investigators tracked down the suspect in Atlanta. The suspect was identified as Kevin Green III, 19. He was charged with two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
The incident happened on Forestview Circle, which is just off Broad River Road in the Irmo area, around 9:15 p.m. August 8. Deputies were called to the scene after three people were shot.
According to Sheriff Lott, the shooting incident involved marijuana.
Carlos Bethel, 18, of Irmo, died on August 14 due to complications from gunshot wounds to the upper body, according to Richland County coroner Gary Watts.
The first victim died the day of the shooting. Richland County Coroner Gary Watts identified that person as Tyson Angelo Anderson, 19, of Irmo. An autopsy indicated that Anderson died from a gunshot wound to the torso.
During the news conference, Sheriff Lott stated that these deaths were the 8th and 9th in Richland County this year, about a fifty percent drop from previous years. Three of those murders have not been solved.
"The community is sick and tired of what's going on with the young people and guns and murders going on," Lott said.
Sheriff Lott also noted that the RCSD has been focusing on closing clubs where shootings happened, along with concentrating on the five percent they believe commits 80 percent of the crimes.
"Guns, drugs and gangs will end you up in one of two places, either the cemetery or in the prison," said Sheriff Lott.
According to Sheriff Lott, the RCSD is fully staffed, with no openings in their 713 deputy positions.
"The fact that we are able to keep our ranks full, that we have deputies on the street, we have investigators working, we have specialized unites, I think that goes a long way the reduction that we are seeing this year," Sheriff Lott said.
Though Sheriff Lott says that they can see the numbers have improved, the issue still exists. Sheriff Lott says that the community and Sheriff's Department are factors in the lowering of these deaths.
"I don't want us to get caught up in just talking about statistics. that's cold, I think that's very cold to talk about a victim as a statistic," Sheriff Lott said. "We need to talk about these are people, these are victims, people in our community that we're losing."
Here are the details for the three unsolved murders in Richland County in 2019:
- May 5, deputies responded to the 7900 block of Bluff Road in Gadsden around 1:30 a.m. after someone reported a fight. Investigators found a man shot multiple times. He died from his injuries. The suspect is described as a man in his 20's and was wearing a white Nike Shirt and blue Nike shorts the night of the murder.
- May 5, around 2 p.m., deputies were called for a welfare check in the 700 block of Main Street in Eastover. That's where investigators found a 68-year-old man inside his home - dead from a gunshot to the chest.
- May 12, deputies dispatched to a shots fired call in the 7100 block of Parklane Road and Oneil Court. When investigators arrived, they found two men shot in the upper body. One man died from his injuries. Officials discovered the shooting actually happened in the roadway on Columbia Mall Boulevard.
If you have any information about the suspects in these cases, call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
"It's unfortunate that we've got young people between the age of 14 to 28 that are living and dying by the gun, and this is just an example of that," Sheriff Lott said.