Spate of youth gun violence is plaguing Richland County. 'We’re about to lose a generation' (2024)

COLUMBIA — It was another teen shooting.

The killing of a 16-year-old, shot as he was leaving a party, should have sent a “shock wave” through the community. Instead, the police chief said, it seems as if the community has gone “numb.”

Dozens of people were at the graduation party in late May where at least 50 shots were fired. A bullet struck high school football player Julian Keel as he was walking out.

Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said very, very few teenagers and parents have come forward with information on the shooting.

“That should matter, that a 16-year-old’s life got taken for no reason,” Holbrook said.

Richland Sheriff Leon Lott said there has been more shootings involving teenagers and young adults in recent years. He’s called the problem “kids with guns” and “youth with guns.”

“It’s a new phenomenon that’s probably increased over the last five years,” Lott said.

It isn’t hard for teenagers to get their hands on a gun, according to the sheriff. Even Glock switches, which makes a handgun automatic, can be easily made.

The sheriff’s department recently arrested six people, ages 17 to 21, allegedly tied to the May shooting at the Villages of Lakeshore neighborhood pool. One was found with a Glock switch and an extended magazine. Others were found with guns that were different than the ones used in the shooting.

“They had already gotten rid of those guns and replaced them with another,” Lott said.

The trend: Young Black men and teenagers shooting their peers, and their peers shooting back.

“We’re about to lose a generation. I call it a genocide,” said Oveta Glover, president of the Columbia branch of the NAACP.

“The escalating gun violence in our communities is a crisis that requires urgent attention and action,” Glover said in a recent announcement on a new group called Parents for Peace, which supports families affected by violence.

Many of the shootings involving teenagers and young adults stem from arguments and are often done in retaliation, according to both the sheriff and police chief.

“We don’t see too many physical assaults,” Holbrook said.

Instead of fighting, arguments escalate when someone pulls a gun, the chief said.

“When somebody pulls a gun, typically somebody else pulls a gun,” Holbrook said. “That’s the difference in what we see now than what we saw five, 10 years ago.”

The police chief said it seems the generation has a different outlook on life and understanding of the consequences of pulling a trigger.

“It just seems like there’s not that degree of consciousness or appreciation to the value of life that maybe you might get from a mature adult,” Holbrook said.

For Path2Redemption’s Lester Young, teen violence has been a longstanding problem. The response to teen violence, in his eyes, has been more reactive than proactive.

To fix it, Young said, work needs to start at roots.

“Violence is trauma and abandonment,” Young said.

Young was convicted of murder when he was 18 for a fatal shooting. Since he was released in 2015, he’s been working to help the formerly incarcerated with their transition back into society. Now, he has several juvenile programs focused on choices, self-esteem and respect.

“You find a lot of these young men are coming from broken homes, and a broken home produces lack of identity, a lack of self-worth,” Young said. “These various thing play a role in leading to violence.”

What’s being done about it?

Local officials with both the city and the county governments are discussing ways to reduce gun violence among teens and young adults.

“We need to stay on track,” Lott said. “Or we’re going to lose a generation.”

Tyler Bailey, an at-large councilmember in Columbia, pitched setting a nightly curfew for teenagers as an effort to reduce gun violence among the youth.

Bailey said the idea is still in the early stages, but he would like to see a curfew used as a deterrent rather than a punishment.

The city launched its new Office of Violence Prevention in mid-2023. Over the past year, the office has been in the startup phase.

Treyvon Fordham, the office director, said they’re looking at evidence-based prevention and also talking to residents in the community to look at the situation from the ground level.

“We’re creating some actions plans for the next one year, three years and possibly even five years,” Fordham said.

Richland County Councilmember Gretchen Barron called in a consultant to help come up with a planned approach to reduce violence after the fatal September shooting in the Lincolnshire neighborhood. The efforts were focused in the 29203 ZIP code, which encompasses much of north Columbia and Richland County, between the Broad River and S.C. 277.

The Mississippi-based consultant, Marc Fomby from FTC Prevention Services, did a ride-along with a sheriff’s department deputy. He also spoke to those in the community.

“He did observe some gang activity that was throughout our community,” Barron said.

Barron added that a new group, Safer Communities of the Midlands, was recently created to reduce youth violence in partnership with the nonprofit Wiley Kennedy Foundation. The group is a collaboration of local officials, community leaders, nonprofits and businesses.

The group is looking for youth to join the city’s Youth Advisory Board. Barron said the teenagers joining the group don’t necessarily need to have good grades.

“They may have C’s and D’s, but they know how to rally and get people to follow behind them,” Barron said. “Those are the individuals we want to be a part of our Youth Advisory Board.”

One of the most repeated comments from residents in the 29203 ZIP code, was “there’s nothing to do.”

Giving teens something productive to do is another facet being worked on.

On June 14, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice hosted a program called Peace Up, Guns Down, a cookout attended by local nonprofits and law enforcement.

Some kids and teens learned how to use DJ equipment. Others rode bikes and ate hamburgers. They walk around a community center, which was set up with booths from various nonprofits and groups.

“When you see a gun, run,” Candace Brewer told a child, who was looking at pins and pamphlets from the South Carolina Chapter of Protect Our Stolen Treasures. The group plans to take a mobile gun violence classroom to the Statehouse on June 18.

“When you see a gun, run,” the child repeated.