Officers arrest 1 suspect, seek 2 others in weekend assault; other incidents under investigation
Police may still be working on a fix for crime in Five Points, but they think they’re one step closer to figuring out one of the weekend’s violent incidents.
Randy Scott, Columbia’s police chief, announced Thursday afternoon that investigators had arrested one suspect in a beating near Pop’s NY Pizza on Harden Street.
Stanley McBride, 21, is charged with second-degree assault and battery; he is being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on $30,000 bond.
Police have also issued warrants for Michael Jermel Kendrix of Austell, Ga., and John Cornelius Sumner of Stockbridge, Ga., who are both 21. They’re both expected to be charged with second-degree assault and battery and are both enrolled at Benedict College, according to a release, and Benedict’s police are assisting in the investigation.
More arrests are possible, though, Scott said, following the incident, in which a man was allegedly kicked and punched in the head and chest by seven to 10 men early Sunday morning, according to an incident report. He was taken to a hospital with a broken jaw, severe lacerations and a swollen face.
The announcement, at a press conference with Mayor Steve Benjamin, came days after Scott said Columbia police would crack down on crime — including excessive and underage drinking — in the popular hospitality district.
Sunday morning’s other incidents, including another assault and a robbery that saw shots fired, were still under investigation Thursday; whether the victims in those cases are students is not clear, Scott said.
But while investigators are making progress, Scott warned that resolving crimes after the fact wouldn’t fix the district’s issues.
“We’re not going to arrest our way out of this situation,” Scott said.
For one, Benjamin said, police need more help from Five Points’ visitors.
A video of the incident outside of Pop’s circulated online, and it shows a crowd of onlookers. Of them, only two called police, he said.
“If you see something happen, I need you to call the cops, not videotape it,” Benjamin said.
As for Columbia police, Scott bandied about a few ideas of his own at a Tuesday press conference. Among them: cracking down on loitering and open containers, increasing officers’ presence, bringing in drug- and gun-sniffing dogs and taking a harder line on underage drinking.
The latter suggestion spurred a backlash among students and some community members, who made calls and sent emails to city officials and took to social media to voice their opposition to the measure.
By Thursday evening, “Fight Back for 5points,” a Facebook group that saw numerous complaints about the idea, had picked up more than 6,000 members, and an online petition of the same name that contends drinking didn’t cause the violent crimes had gathered more than 1,500 supporters.
Students also buzzed about the proposed change throughout the week, and complaints emerged in classrooms and bars alike.
Many, like Matt Blackwell, a fourth-year political science student, said they thought police should worry more about preventing violence than looking for students drinking underage.
“Everybody feels a little on edge right now,” Blackwell said over a Shock Top at Village Idiot Thursday night. “They need to focus on the people who are dangerous down here. I don’t think that’s the college kids.”
At Thursday’s press conference, Benjamin and Scott seemed to back down from the initial promise of a drinking crackdown, saying their top priority is preventing violent crime.
“I’m not worried about students’ drinking,” Scott said in an earlier interview. “I’m worried about students’ safety.”
Police still plan to make a strong showing in Five Points over the next few weekends, though.
Benjamin said the city planned “a heightened and visible presence” Saturday, when USC won’t have a home football game, and “an incredible presence” the weekend after, as the Gamecocks host the University of Georgia for a highly anticipated night game.
He also told revelers to expect other changes in Five Points, like the presence of the city’s gang task force, barricades blocking nearby neighborhoods, more active enforcement and a focus on drugs and drunken driving. Benjamin also suggested wristbands could help distinguish between the district’s patrons and its loiterers.
Police will also ask nearby law enforcement — including the State Law Enforcement Division, the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety and officers at Fort Jackson — to help them out, Benjamin said.
The changes come less than two years after the city established a sweeping set of measures, from a new hospitality district task force to a youth curfew, that followed the brutal beating of Carter Strange in the heart of the district. Over the last 15 months, Benjamin said, crime there has fallen 26 percent.
And the department looked poised to send a message Thursday, as Benjamin and Scott at a podium backed by a line of officers that patrol the area, in front of a fountain ringed with police cars.
The two have also spoken with representatives of the university, including Student Body President Kenny Tracy and USC Police Chief Chris Wuchenich.
Scott and Wuchenich meet weekly, and Scott said despite the weekend’s incidents, the tone of their Thursday conversation hadn’t changed compared to weeks past.
And when it comes to Five Points, Merritt McHaffie and Ryan Kay don’t expect much to change, either.
McHaffie, the executive director of the Five Points Association, and Kay, the owner of Pinch, a Harden Street bar, said they don’t expect the high-profile incidents to deter patrons from the district, though McHaffie said she’d heard concerns among her members that they might.
As for Pinch, Kay said it hadn’t encountered such crimes first-hand, leading him to think students and alcohol aren’t the district’s problem.
Still, even as they refocus on violent crime, police won’t be turning a blind eye to underage and excessive drinking, either.
“This is the Columbia police department,” Scott said, after emphasizing that drinking underage is illegal, too. “This is not a selective police department.”
Editor’s note: Colin Campbell contributed to this report.