Man shot woman, then led chase that ended with two drivers & dog dying in crash, police say
A woman was shot Saturday morning, and the suspected gunman led South Carolina law enforcement officers on a chase that ended in a multi-vehicle crash where two drivers and a dog were killed, according to the Columbia Police Department.
One of the drivers who died was the suspected gunman who “likely shot himself in the lower body while in his vehicle,” police said in a news release.
“At no point did law enforcement officers discharge their duty weapons,” police said.
Neither the man accused of the shooting and leading the chase nor the man who was driving one of the other vehicles involved in the three-vehicle collision has been publicly identified by the Richland County Coroner’s Office.
The driver of a third vehicle involved in the wreck was hospitalized.
The woman, who was shot in her lower body, suffered what police called a non-life-threatening injury. Further information on her condition was not available.
No other injuries were reported.
Police said they got involved in the incident at about 11 a.m. when they responded to reports of a shooting at the Cross Hill Apartments in the 4400 block of Blossom Street. That’s near the intersection of Beltline Boulevard and Devine Street.
The shooting was domestic related, and the man accused of pulling the trigger drove the victim to a local hospital, according to the release. Information about what led to the shooting was not available.
At the hospital, the suspected shooter made threats to return to the Blossom Street home and harm both juveniles inside and himself, police said.
Officers had a description of the suspected shooter’s vehicle, later described as a 2021 Dodge sedan by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, and found the car behind a business in the 4000 block of Leesburg Road, according to the release. That’s in the Hopkins area, and is in the jurisdiction of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, prompting police to ask for help from deputies.
As officers tried to make contact with the suspected shooter to arrest him, the man drove away and both law enforcement agencies got involved in a pursuit, police said.
The suspected shooter was driving the Dodge west on Garners Ferry Road and collided with the driver’s side of a 2001 Toyota SUV that was heading south on Hazelwood Road and turning left onto Garners Ferry Road, according to Master Trooper Mitchell Ridgeway of the Highway Patrol. That’s back in police jurisdiction, about 6 miles from where officers first saw the Dodge and 4 miles from where the shooting happened.
After the initial crash, the Dodge continued forward and hit the front of a 2005 Toyota sedan that was stopped at a traffic light while heading east on Garners Ferry Road, Ridgeway said.
All three drivers were taken to Prisma Health Richland hospital, where the suspected shooter and the Toyota SUV driver died, Ridgeway said. Further information on the driver of the Toyota sedan was not available.
A dog in the Toyota SUV was killed in the crash, police said.
The suspected shooter was live streaming during the initial police pursuit. Officers seized his gun from his vehicle at the crash scene, according to police.
The crash is being investigated by the Highway Patrol; the shooting is being investigated by police and the coroner’s office.
