CAMDEN, S.C. — Investigators are working to uncover additional details about two separate incidents that both boiled over at the Camden Walmart on Thursday afternoon.
According to Camden Police Chief Joe Floyd, officers were initially called out to the store after employees overheard a group of about four people - three males and one female - arguing. The employees heard someone in the group threaten to shoot another and an employee alleged that one of the males had a gun.
Employees passed the information to managers and 911 was soon called. Chief Floyd said no shots were fired.
However, during the police response to Walmart, a male suspect, in what was later found to be an unrelated incident, did escape as a passenger along with a female driver. That incident soon became what Chief Floyd described as a high-speed chase that led to the involvement of the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office.
The chase ran down Springdale Road at speeds of up to 90 mph according to the sheriff's office. It soon ended in a crash involving a pursuing Kershaw County deputy after the suspects turned right on Liberty Hill Road.
Chief Floyd later confirmed that the passenger was actually a suspect in a shoplifting case and that it's not believed he was connected to the dispute that initially led to a police response.
The two suspects in the vehicle and a deputy were taken to the hospital with what the sheriff's office described as minor injuries. The South Carolina Highway Patrol is now investigating the collision.
Meanwhile, Camden Police are still looking for the suspects in the initial dispute in the store which turned out to be unrelated to the chase.