COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia Police are actively searching for those responsible for a shootout last Saturday night at a Midlands strip mall that left a 16-year-old high school student.
Julian Keel, who went to Keenan High School, was shot following a graduation party in the parking lot off Colonial Life Boulevard in Columbia. Police said he was an innocent bystander to a fight that ended in gunfire. Investigators are searching for the suspects responsible.
This incident marks the second recent occurrence in the area where numerous bullets were fired, causing young people to flee in fear. Last month, a teen was wounded after multiple people opened gunfire at a community pool in a neighborhood in northeast Richland County.
Both incidents raise concerns about what individuals and their children should do if caught in such a dangerous situation.
“What I have seen change within the last several years is just the volume of them taking place,” said Newberry Sheriff Lee Foster.
When multiple shots are fired, the immediate question is where to go and what to do to stay safe.
“While the shooting is actively going on, the textbook advice is to run, hide, and the last thing you do is fight,” Foster stated.
Sheriff Foster and his team at the Newberry Sheriff's Department have been training for active shootings since they became a growing phenomenon across the country years ago.
“You would want to run away from the danger, try to hide from the danger, or try to protect yourself from the danger if you can't run, and then at last, you’d have to defend yourself and fight,” Foster further explained.
The shootout at a neighborhood pool and at the Midlands strip mall did not occur in Sheriff Foster’s county, but he said that the issue with these shootings is that people are firing indiscriminately.
“They may have somebody that they are targeting, but they don't aim that gun at the person. They just start slapping the trigger, and of course, a bullet has no identity. It goes wherever it's coming out of the muzzle of the gun,” Foster said.
In the pool and shopping center incidents alone, law enforcement found over 100 bullets left at the scenes. In the case of the pool incident, over 75 bullets were fired in less than 30 seconds.
“The best thing to do is try to protect yourself and get behind something substantial that will block a high-speed bullet,” remarked Foster.
Whether at businesses, schools, parties, or in neighborhoods, Sheriff Foster said people should not have to fear for their lives while going about their daily lives.
“I think the lack of communication skills also hurts in this endeavor where people are not willing to talk it out or look at it in a different fashion instead of grabbing a gun and shooting,” he added.
Both Columbia police and the Richland Sheriff’s Department are searching for suspects in these two shootings. Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.