The Daily Gamecock

'I was completely paralyzed': USC students recount shooting at Redpoint

<p>A photo of Redpoint's pool on June 14, 2022. Leading up to the shooting at Redpoint, many people were gathered at the pool, playing loud music.</p>
A photo of Redpoint's pool on June 14, 2022. Leading up to the shooting at Redpoint, many people were gathered at the pool, playing loud music.

A shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. June 5 at Redpoint housing complex.

In an email sent to its residents on June 6, Redpoint confirmed that at least 15 shots were fired from two vehicles by Building 21. As a result of the shooting, a non-resident had a non-fatal injury, and there were damages to an apartment window and at least one vehicle. 

Following the shooting, many residents like fourth-year exercise science student Roshni Patel pointed toward Redpoint’s broken gates as being part of the issue. 

Redpoint answered these complaints by letting their residents know in another email on June 7 that due to not being able to find the right team to fix the gates, Redpoint had to wait before the repairs could be made. 

“We hear you. These repairs are taking far too long. Locating a company that could properly diagnose and make all required gate repairs was extremely difficult with the lack of labor and part availability,” the email said.

Despite these complications, the email said Redpoint was starting repairs on June 8.

Leading up to the altercation, many people were gathered at Redpoint’s pool, playing loud music through speakers. One Redpoint resident, fourth-year psychology student Rachael Hamby said the party on June 6 wasn’t the first to occur at the complex. 

“I call almost every single night asking for security to get people at the pool to leave,” Hamby said. “All-in-all, it’s been very poor management.”

During the night of the shooting, Hamby said she could hear people shouting and singing to the music at the pool.

“It was the loudest it had ever been at Redpoint,” Hamby said.

Another Redpoint resident, fourth-year public health student Alyssa Kushner, said most of the people at the pool were not residents. When heading over to her neighbors, Kushner said she saw 20 people gathered on the sidewalk.

“I walked into my neighbor’s house and not even 30 seconds to a minute later, there was 15 to 20 shots fired,” Kushner said. 

When the gunshots were going off, Kushner said she immediately froze, not moving until firing seized.

“I was completely paralyzed,” Kushner said. “I literally just stood there in complete shock.”

For Patel, she said she immediately “freaked out” after hearing a gun going off and looked out of the window with her roommates to see what had happened at the pool. 

“We look out the window, and we just see crowds of people storming out and running into the clubhouse and just trying to get away,” Patel said. “We didn’t know if anybody had got injured or not.” 

In their email on June 6, Redpoint told its residents that they are still working with law enforcement and would continue to send updates whenever they received information.

“We do not believe there is any continuing threat, but we ask you to continue to be cautious and to immediately report any suspicious or threatening activity as always,” the email said. “The safety and security of our residents will always remain our highest priorities.”

Hamby said she thinks that the shooting has pushed Redpoint to make their residents safer by fixing the gates but believes more could have been done prior to the shooting.

“If (safety) was a concern, then the huge party wouldn’t have happened either way, and they wouldn’t have been allowing residents in and out,” Hamby said.


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