Sheriff Lott talks tough about shootouts, fighting

A woman who identified herself at Kate asked what the town was doing to create crime watches.

BLYTHEWOOD – Almost a hun­dred members of the community gathered at Doko Manor Monday evening to hear Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott update them on the arrests of seven 18 to 23-year-olds involved in a recent shootout in downtown Blythewood. He also talked about recent trends in which hundreds of teens swarm­ing nighttime Doko Park events and disrupting them with fighting that resulted in terrified parents running from the park with their children in tow.

Lott also criticized the commu­nity and businesses for not call­ing RSCD prior to the shots being fired on downtown Blythewood at approximately 1 o’clock in the morning of April 5.

While acknowledging that these ‘pop-up’ parties can assemble in a matter of minutes, he said, “the town can’t be a magnet that allows them (shooters) to come up and do what they did that night with over 200 kids and take it over.

“Not one phone call that we got prior to when the guns started shooting,” Lott said. “Nobody called. No business called. No­body called us. Once the shooting happened then we started getting 9-1-1 calls. It was a different ele­ment that came in here that night.”

Addressing the fighting that has erupted in Doko Park, Lot said the Town has to set up better rules for the events.

“The reason you have this prob­lem here is because you let every­body come in. And these adults drop off their kids and go some­where else and leave them here,” he said. “You can’t have unsuper­vised teenagers because they’re going to cause problems. If you have events, you’ve got to monitor who comes in and supervise them as they come in. And if they’re 17 or younger, you don’t have to let them come in if they don’t have a parent,” Lott said. “So as people who put on events, you have to have it organized so you control who comes in.”

Holding Parents Accountable

Lott said his department is going to hold the shooters’ parents accountable.

“If they cross the line from being a parent to a participant in any way, then we’re going to hold them accountable and charge them, too,” he said.

Lott said the issue is a nationwide problem, not unique to Blythewood. He had several suggestions for quelling the incidents.

  • Pass an ordinance to impose a curfew.
  • Build a fence around the park to control who can attend the events.
  • Don’t allow teens 17 and under to enter nighttime park events without their parents.
  • Don’t allow parents to drop teens off at nighttime park events.
  • Contact RCSD when your child gets a social media post about a pop-u-party.
  • Form a downtown crime watch.

A BW Police Department?

Some in the audience suggested Blythewood should create its own police department or put up more security cameras, especially in the downtown area.

At a recent town council meeting, council members discussed the feasibility of creating a police department, but determined the cost was beyond the Town’s reach.

“Cameras help us solve the crime,” Lott said. “But they don’t prevent crime.”

Bishop Johnny Brooks called for more faith-based leadership in the community as a deterrent to crime.

There was a suggestion to have more deputies at the park events. According to Lott, 10 deputies were on the grounds of the April Movies in the Park event when fighting broke out. Four female juveniles were charged but, according to an incident report obtained by The Voice from RCSD, because they are juveniles, they were not arrested but charged and released into the custody of their parents.

National Night Out

Lott’s suggestions included organizing neighborhood crime watches and a National Night Out event in the park.

“You need to do a big ole National Night Out right here in this park, and every neighborhood in Blythewood needs to come to it,” Lott said. “That’s where we all get to know each other and it sends a message to the bad guys that Blythewood is organized.”

In an earlier press conference, Lott lamented that all or most of the seven young adults who were arrested in connection with the shootout in downtown Blythewood on April 5, were released on bond. One was out on bond for attempted murder, he said, and others were seen in the video wearing ankle monitors from previous incidents they’d been involved in.

Out On Bond

“Out on bond, out on bond, out on bond,” Lot repeated at an earlier press conference.

“Your senators appoint the magistrates who are letting them out on bond,” Lott said. “So if you don’t like what the magistrates are doing, complain to your senator.

“I did that a couple of years ago when we got rid of some of them that were terrible,” Lott said. “Now they (magistrates) all want to say that Alvin S. Glenn is a terrible place to go. There’s a real simple way to stay out of there. Don’t commit a crime.

“I don’t buy that sob story about how this poor person, you know, don’t need to be in jail,” Lott said.

State Senator Tameika Isaac Divine, who was in attendance, had this to say:

“If they (magistrates) make a bond that you didn’t like or let people out, then we do need to know that. But I will say that the magistrates are somewhat limited as to what we do at the statehouse and what we do so far as setting bonds.

“Bond reform is currently underway, and so certainly communicate with us (senators), your House representatives, and others, about your concerns, giving specific examples about bonds, because the magistrates actually look at the statute as to whether or not someone’s a danger to the community or a flight risk. There’s also some challenges as far as the information that they have available for setting bonds,” Isaac said.

A Safety Plan

Blythewood town council voted unanimously last month to pause the nighttime Doko park events – Movies in the Park, Juneteenth, and July 4 fireworks – until they can work out how to keep those attending the events safe.

Mayor Sloan Griffin announced ‘this is not a one-man show.” He said council will be discussing a safety plan including a proposed curfew and the installation of park fencing at the May 27 council meeting.

The other council members told The Voice after the meeting they have not been included in those plans and have yet to see it.

The next town council meeting will be held at 6 p.m., Tuesday, May 27, at Doko Manor.

Related: Lott: ‘Out on bond, out on bond, out on bond; More arrests made in connection with Blythewood shooting; Two more arrests made in Blythewood shootingThree arrested in Blythewood shootingFemale shot, businesses damaged during teen shootout in BlythewoodTeens fire shots in downtown BlythewoodTown Council votes to close nighttime park events in 2025 due to teen disruptionsFour teens charged in latest movie night incidentTeens turn Doko Meadows movie night fun into mayhemWhat happened at Doko’s fireworks event?

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