COLUMBIA, S.C. — Nine people were shot and another two injured early Saturday morning as gunfire erupted during a large gathering in Richland County.
Friday was a night of terrible memories for Sterling McKenzie. He’s a barber in Cayce and heard about a party at Meadowlake Park just north of Columbia on Friday night. He said that when he arrived, he saw a crowd of hundreds.
"Everybody was kind of spread out. There were people in the grass, people in the parking lot, in front of the building, by the playground," McKenzie said. "It was the park; everybody was everywhere. There were so many people out there."
He said it started out as a good time catching up with friends, but, shortly after he got there, gunfire rang out and chaos followed.
"People were driving off shooting, leaving the scene pointing guns out of the car, like it was a mess," he said. "No arguing, it just happened. It was random, once one person started shooting, everybody started shooting."
He said he had to dive under a car to avoid being struck by a bullet.
"People got ran over, people trying to get away. I saw, like, three girls on the ground that had got shot," he said. "They were screaming and hollering for help, calling the police, asking for the ambulance, everything."
According to the Richland County Sheriff's Department, shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday morning, deputies got a call about the gathering. When they arrived, they saw a few people at the scene including a woman who was injured after being hit by a vehicle.
The department said they then began collecting shell casings as people were showing up at local hospitals with gunshot wounds.
In all, 11 people were hospitalized, of whom nine suffered gunshot wounds. News19 asked a Richland County School District One spokesperson about the event, which happened just down the road from Keenan High School.
The school district said the event was not school-sponsored and was tied to neither Keenan High School nor the school district. The district also said that, of those wounded, three were Keenan High School students including two juniors and one senior. The district also said the girl who was struck by a vehicle as she was running to safety was another senior at C.A. Johnson High School.
Superintendent Craig Witherspoon released a statement on Saturday evening that stated:
“We are saddened and concerned about the shooting incident that occurred early-Saturday morning (April 29, 2023) at Meadowlake Park in which four Richland One high school students were injured. Our prayers go out to the students who were injured. While the event where the shooting took place was not a school-related or district-related function, we are cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation and we encourage anyone with information about the incident to share it with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. As a precaution, we will have additional security on campus at W.J. Keenan and C.A. Johnson high schools next week.”
Earlier Saturday afternoon, investigators and deputies were on the scene picking up evidence and talking with staff members at Meadowlakes's rec center.
Two people were arrested shortly after the incident after a brief pursuit but an investigation is still underway to determine if they were involved in the shooting.