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The S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is keeping silent on details of a shooting Oct. 19 in Ridgeway that took place during a joint drug operation and involved a deputy from the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, their narcotics division was conducting a joint drug operation with SLED and the Chester and Kershaw county sheriff’s offices in the 2700 block of Mood Harrison Road in Ridgeway at 7:30 a.m. During the execution of a search warrant, a deputy from Kershaw County was forced to discharge his weapon. The deputy was not injured, but a male subject in the home at the time was transported to Richland Memorial Hospital with unspecified injuries.

SLED said the matter was an “ongoing investigation” and refused to release the name of the shooting victim, referring all questions in the investigation of the deputy to the Kershaw Sheriff’s Office. Likewise, Kershaw would not release the name of the deputy or the shooting victim.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Bill Rogers, Executive Director of the S.C. Press Association. “There’s no exemption under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) for an ‘ongoing investigation.’ And how does the name of the shooting victim in any way impact the investigation?”

Two subjects were arrested during the operation, the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said, with more arrests expected. Tony Wright and Chaka Kahn Robertson were arrested Friday morning during the raid.

The Fairfield County Coroner’s Office has identified the body of a man discovered floating in Lake Wateree Friday morning.

Barkley Ramsey said 58-year-old Craig Phillip Paris of Trenholm Road in Columbia was found dead in the waters of Lake Wateree State Part around 8:30 a.m. Paris checked into the park alone Thursday night and camped overnight. Ramsey said Paris had apparently gone fishing during the early morning hours and had fallen from an embankment into the water and drowned.

The case remains under investigation, pending an autopsy and toxicology report, Ramsey said.

FCSO

29016

Grover Wilson Road, 700 block, between 9 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. Oct. 17. Someone broke into a home and stole a television and other items worth $2,300.

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Highway 21 N., 100 block, between 8 a.m. Oct. 12 and 3:18 p.m. Oct. 14. Someone broke into a business and stole tools worth $1,800.

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Columbia Road, 200 block, at 7:29 p.m. Oct. 11. Someone threw a rock through the bedroom window of a home causing $100 in damage.

Greenbrier Mossy Dale Road, 4600 block, between 6 and 6:45 a.m. Oct. 12. Someone vandalized a truck parked outside a home causing $300 in damage.

Columbia Road, 200 block, at 9:34 a.m. Oct. 12. Someone broke out the glass on the front door of a home causing $100 in damage.

Greenbrier Mossy Dale Road, 4900 block, between 8:50 and 9:30 p.m. Oct. 15. Someone vandalized a truck parked outside a home causing $300 in damage.

Cherry Road, 100 block, between 2:56 and 3:30 p.m. Oct. 15. Someone broke into a home and stole tools and other items worth $650.

WDPS

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Gaither Street, 200 block, between 9 p.m. Sept. 17 and noon Sept. 18. Someone stole six pit bull puppies worth $1,000 from the yard of a home.

S. Zion Street, 200 block, between 8 and 8:30 p.m. Sept. 19. Someone stole tools worth $130 from the yard of a home.

Oak Street, 400 block, between 9:15 and 9:20 p.m. Sept. 23. Someone threw a rock through a window on a home causing $100 in damage.

Highway 321 Bypass N., 100 block, between 5:15 and 5:35 p.m. Sept. 24. Someone stole a tablet computer worth $300 left unattended in the lobby of a hospital.

S. Vanderhorst St., 500 block, between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. Sept. 26. Someone stole prescription medications and other items worth $180 from a car parked outside a home.

S. Congress Street, 200 block, between 4 p.m. Sept. 19 and 3:29 p.m. Sept. 20. Someone vandalized a car parked outside a business causing $500 in damage.

Fairview Street, 100 block, between 6:15 and 6:29 p.m. Oct. 6. Someone stole two bicycles worth $100 from the yard of a home.

E. Washington Street, 100 block, between 9 a.m. Sept. 1 and 2 p.m. Oct. 6. Someone broke into a vacant business and stole a television and other items worth $1,100.

Highway 321 Bypass, 100 block, between 12:19 and 12:25 p.m. Oct. 9. A man was arrested after someone shoplifted watches and other items worth $180 from a business.

Calhoun Street, 100 block, between 3:15 and 3:48 a.m. Oct. 13. Someone stole a cell phone worth $100 from a home.

Green Street, 200 block, between 3 and 10:20 a.m. Oct. 13. Someone broke out a window on a home causing $200 in damage.

S. Zion Street, 200 block, between 9 a.m. Oct. 13 and 1 a.m. Oct. 14. Someone broke out a window on a van parked outside a home causing an undetermined amount of damage.

Blythewood’s annual Christmas parade has been scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m.

The parade committee is seeking parade sponsors. Sponsors contributing $250 or more will receive a limited-edition print by Blythewood artist Harold Branham.

And if you would like to be in the parade, or know of another group or business that would, download the Parade Entry form at blythewoodcoc.com. For information, call 754-0501. There is no fee to enter the parade.

“Compliments to the Chef” will happen at Reese’s Plants on Sunday, Oct. 28, beginning at 4 p.m. to raise funds benefiting Blythewood High School’s Chef William Turner who is battling cancer. Turner recently retired from his culinary teaching job at BHS to focus on more intense treatment.

The event honoring Chef Turner and his family will include music, fine wine, a display of art and an array of delicious food. Twelve to 15 tents, manned by restaurants and other culinary organizations from around the Midlands, will be stationed around the garden setting of Reese’s grounds.

Blythewood chefs include Vesha Sanders of Edie’s Event Planning and The Voice’s foods editor, May Vokaty. Other chefs include those representing Cantina ‘76 on Divine Street, Let’s Fish Cooking School and Manchester Farms Quail.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students. Tickets can be purchased in advance at complimentstothechef.brownpapertickets.com or at the gate.

Reese’s is located at 10418 Wilson Blvd., Blythewood.

A Columbia man died Tuesday from injuries sustained in a single-car accident on Highway 21 near Blythewood on Monday night.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said Jerome E. Jones, 57, of 200 Anders Drive in Columbia, was pronounced dead Tuesday at 12:13 a.m. at Palmetto Richland memorial Hospital. According to the S.C. Highway Patrol, Jones was driving a 1999 Corvette northbound on Highway 21 near Blythewood Monday night when the car ran off the right side of the road and struck several trees at around 11:20 p.m. The Highway Patrol said Jones was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the car.

Jones was transported by ambulance to Palmetto Richland. Watts said Jones died from blunt force injuries associated with the crash.

The accident remains under investigation by the Highway Patrol.

The mother of a student at Westwood High School has filed a civil lawsuit against the Richland School District 2 Board of Trustees and its superintendent, Dr. Katie Brochu, claiming the district created a “de-facto segregated high school system” when it redrew attendance boundaries prior to opening the new high school in Blythewood.

The suit, filed Oct. 19 in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas by “Jane Doe” on behalf of her son, “John Doe,” also claims that the board denied the plaintiff an intra-district transfer as a “Gifted and Talented” student, in violation of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Educational Improvement Act of 1984, and the S.C. Code of Laws establishing and regulating the Gifted and Talented program.

Following the Board’s special called meeting Monday night, Board Chairman Chip Jackson said he had just received a copy of the lawsuit and that it would be forwarded to the school district’s legal department. He said he had no idea who filed it and had not read it.

The lawsuit states that John Doe has been designated a Gifted and Talented student and, prior to the opening of Westwood High School this year, was on track to attend Blythewood High School this fall. The new attendance lines, adopted by the district last December, coupled with what the suit states was the “improper application of ‘school choice’,” resulted in a segregated school system for high school students in Blythewood, with Blythewood High School majority white and Westwood majority African-American, according to documents filed with the Court.

Middle school computers for the 2021-2013 fall term showed all students living within the 29016 zip code as assigned to Blythewood High School, the lawsuit states, until at least April 16, 2012, “which was well after the ‘school choice’ deadline.” The suit alleges that the district Registrar allowed “any and all students to ‘choice into’ Blythewood high school by applying during the school choice period. However, the suit states, preference was given to siblings of students currently attending BHS, as well as to children of teachers employed by any school in the district and students that had previously attended BHS. Because of the resulting “overcrowding” at BHS, the suit claims, all transfers into the high school – even those endorsed by the Gifted and Talented statute – were denied.

The lawsuit also claims that denial of the transfer violated John Doe’s equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, as well as alleges that the district had no program in place to evaluate how the change in schools and peer groups would affect Gifted and Talented students.

“I’m concerned that there’s a tremendous sense of polarization in the community and that it’s having a detrimental effect on the district as evidenced by the uproar,” Jackson said regarding recent requests by parents to transfer students from Westwood back to Blythewood High School.

Jackson said he had hoped that the parents would give the new school a fair chance.

“It’s only been 60 days of school,” he said, “and we already have students wanting to transfer.”

The lawsuit asks the Court to allow for the transfer of John Doe immediately to Blythewood High School, or a school that houses his peer group. The suit also seeks costs associated with the complaint.