Two charged with carjacking in Summerville, Bryan M. Howell and a juvenile

Two teenagers have been charged with the Monday carjacking in Summerville that ended with the stolen vehicle crashing into another car.

One of the suspects is an 18-year-old and the other 15, said Summerville police Capt. Jon Rogers. He said a weapon believed to have been used in the carjacking has been recovered.

Rogers said Blake Kafka, 19, was forced about 1 p.m. Monday to give up the black 2003 Infiniti G-35 he had parked near Old Trolley Road.

The Infiniti was later seen on Miles Jamison Road, and then collided with another vehicle on Rose Lane with police and Dorchester County deputies trailing it.

The two carjacking suspects ran from the crashed Infiniti and fled into some woods. Several area schools were placed on lockdown for several hours while an intense manhunt involving officers and tracking dogs took place.

Rogers said Bryan M. Howell, 18, of Summerville was arrested Monday afternoon within a mile of the crash. On Tuesday morning, the 15-year-old was arrested, he said.

Howell is charged with armed robbery, carjacking, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The juvenile faces the same charges, except for the contributing charge, Rogers said.

Howell is at Dorchester County Jail and will receive a bond hearing at 9 a.m. today in Summerville Municipal Court. The 15-year-old was taken to Columbia and is being held at the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice, Rogers said.

Police took Kafka to the crash scene, where he found the Infiniti severely damaged. The front end was crushed, and the car’s air bags had deployed.

Kafka said he’d just left the Dorchester County Library’s Summerville branch, and had taken a seat in the Infiniti, when a man knocked on the car window.

Kafka opened the door, and the man stuck a gun in his chest and demanded money. Kafka told the man he had none, after which the man ordered him out of the car, according to a police report.

A second man then joined the gunman, and they both took off with the car, the report states.

The collision took place on Rose Lane, near Ashley Drive. The driver of the second car was slightly injured but did not want to be checked at a hospital, Rogers said.

Police escorted small children off a school bus and to their homes when the bus brought them to the neighborhood in the afternoon.