COLUMBIA, S.C. — According to the Richland County Sheriff's Department, a boy was struck by a stray bullet while asleep in his bed at his home.
Frustration from local residents and law enforcement was evident in Richland County after the late-night shooting put the nine-year-old in the hospital.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the shooting happened along the 1000 block of Turtle Stone Road near Hard Scrabble Road around 3 A.M. Wednesday.
"These cowards who ride through neighborhoods, and shoot at each other, and end up shooting innocent people, they're going to be arrested," he said.
The sheriff believes this shooting was likely done by young people, possibly teenagers, and says multiple homes were shot during a hail of gunfire.
"I stand here and talk a lot of times about young people with guns, who just do not care. If I had to guess, I imagine this is going to be some young people we're going to arrest, and it's going to be the same thing; they don't care," he says.
Sheriff Lott says the neighborhood has been the victim of shootings in the past as well.
"This is the second one that's occurred in this neighborhood, the first one happened in March," he says.
On Wednesday bullet holes could be seen on homes as law enforcement continued to work the crime scene.
Lott says cameras are on their way to the neighborhood, and told neighbors there will be more law enforcement presence until arrests are made.
"They're getting cameras in the neighborhood, they were already in the process of doing that so there will be cameras there," Lott says.
We spoke with a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous. He is hoping this event will draw more attention to the area and create more safety.
"I want arrests, I want to find who is doing this because this is, this is nuts," he said, "Now that we're getting urgent, we need to get some answers, because this can't happen again, this is unbelievable."
Lott says this is still an active investigation and says any one with information is encouraged to reach out to Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CrimeSC or through the P3 Tips app.