COLUMBIA, S.C. — Residents in the South Carolina Midlands are voicing their concerns following a recent string of shootings. The most recent incident occurred only days earlier in Lexington County when a road rage incident turned into a violent shooting on one of the county's busiest highways.
Deputies reported that a suspect fired a gun and pointed it at another car during a road rage altercation on Highway 378. The suspect, an 18-year-old high school student, is now in custody and facing multiple charges.
“It really scares me how it’s ramped up recently in the past few years,” said Rose Grumley, a current high school student and Lexington resident. “It really terrifies me as a high school student since a lot of the time gun violence affects high school students.”
This incident follows a weekend shooting in Columbia, where police say an innocent teenager was killed after a fight broke out following a graduation party on Colonial Life Boulevard. Less than two weeks prior, another teen was wounded during a gun battle at a pool in a Northeast Richland County neighborhood.
“I’m not a person who thinks all guns should be taken from everyone, but I do think it should be more regulated because it has been getting out of hand,” said Trey Anderson, another Lexington resident.
While Anderson calls for more regulation, others, like resident Chelsea Johnson, have grown desensitized to the violence.
“I’ve just come numb to it almost. I hate that I feel that way but I don’t know, it’s just not good,” Johnson said.
This surge in violence has left many Lexington County residents wary of being alone in public places.
“I’m in constant fear that something will happen. I think of that a lot since now I’m driving by myself and I go out by myself, so I think about that a lot when I go into stores,” Grumley said.
Residents believe that improving education about firearms could be a solution.
“If people were just a little more informed and they knew you could literally take someone’s life away from them, things would be different, I feel like,” Anderson said.