Police plan to continue elevated presence after Five Points shooting
More arrests are likely to come from a weekend shooting in Five Points, Columbia Police Chief Randy Scott said Monday.
According to an incident report released Monday, two minutes before shots were fired Saturday morning, an officer noticed several men running out of The Library bar at 805 Harden St. The officer stopped an 18-year-old man to ask why he was running and arrested him for disorderly conduct.
On surveillance footage, investigators saw four men run up Greene Street to the Andy’s Deli parking lot at 2:01 a.m., according to the report.
A minute later, one of them walked out onto the sidewalk from beneath the restaurant’s sign and fired “several rounds” toward the intersection of Greene and Harden streets, where the officer and 18-year-old man were, the report said. No one was injured, and no property was damaged.
One man then walked toward Harden Street, another fled through the parking lot at 2009 Greene St. and two others stayed at Andy’s Deli, according to the report.
Police questioned two men in the restaurant’s parking lot, who denied knowing anything about the shooting and “were not cooperative with the officers,” the report said. They were then released.
As the shooting was being investigated, Shiquan Tyon Cwiklinski, 18, walked up to the officer and said he wanted his “cousin released,” the report said.
Cwiklinski was arrested in connection with the shooting Saturday morning and charged with two counts of attempted murder and with possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
Additional charges are possible, and Scott asked anyone who was in the area and came under fire to come forward.
“There are more victims out there,” Scott said.
Police were able to identify Cwiklinski from witness interviews and the high density of surveillance cameras in Five Points, Scott said.
The Five Points Association has spent about $100,000 installing nearly 100 cameras throughout the area, including a $50,000 project four months ago, said Merritt McHaffie, its executive director, and many establishments have put up cameras of their own.
“It’s hard to go anywhere in Five Points and not be on camera,” McHaffie said.
Scott said over the weekend that he was concerned The Library was damaging the reputation of clubs in the area.
Over the course of a weekend earlier this month, a man had a bottle thrown at his head and was kicked in the face, and someone shot a gun into the air after a brawl outside the bar was broken up. The Library isn’t a Five Points Association member, McHaffie said.
City officials plan to speak with the bar’s owners about improving security, Scott said, but they haven’t given them any instructions yet.
Mayor Steve Benjamin said Saturday morning’s shooting also stemmed from a loophole in state law that doesn’t allow judges to deny bond for suspects charged with non-capital offenses.
At the time of the shooting, Cwiklinski was out on bond for a pair of attempted murder charges in 2012, according to law enforcement and court records.
A judge set bond for Cwiklinski at $325,000 for the most recent incident Sunday morning.
Scott said Fifth Circuit Solicitor Dan Johnson is working to have the bond revoked.
Benjamin said he supported a bill being discussed in the state House Judiciary committee that would close the loophole.
“That’s something that’s very desperately needed,” Benjamin said. “A very small number of thugs are victimizing people all across the state.”
The shooting occurred after Columbia police decided to increase weekend patrols in the area to about 20 officers, up from 10, which is more standard for this time of year, Scott said.
The department will send about 20 officers to Five Points again next weekend, Scott said. How much doing so costs the city in overtime hasn’t been calculated yet.
Scott said the increased presence helped mitigate the damages of the shooting and added to a fast response, so he’s frustrated by criticisms that police stand around or sit in their cars in Five Points.
Surveillance videos show the area flood with officers running over on foot and more than 10 cars respond.
“Some might say that because of the shooting that Five Points is not a safe place,” Scott said. “But where else would you have ... that kind of police response in that short amount of time? Nowhere.”
So far this year, Columbia police have reported fewer armed robberies (1), burglaries (1), disorderly conduct charges (14), liquor law violations (22), sexual assaults (0) and simple assaults (11) in Five Points compared to 2012, according to figures released by the department.
But it’s responded to more aggravated assaults (3) and issued more drunkenness charges (46) so far this year than last year, according to the figures.
Scott said Monday he wanted people to use “common sense” — that large crowds drink in Five Points and that as a result, some crime is inevitable.
“That’s not Disney World,” Scott said. “It’s Five Points.”