Special Report: Colleton County violence

WALTERBORO -- Hip-hop music blared from the cab of a U-Haul truck as members of a young family loaded their possessions and prepared to move from a bullet-pocked bungalow, where a 12-year-old was struck by gunfire.

Tierra Jessica Singleton was hit in the hand and head by a drive-by shotgun blast as she sat on the couch inside the home Jan. 17. She is expected to pull through, a relative said, but she won't be coming back to this home.

"The kids don't even want to be in here any more. They're too scared," said a family member who refused to give his name. "We don't even want to be on this side of town anymore."

Gun violence and gangs have left a trail of bloodshed through this rural community in recent months, driving Colleton County to its highest homicide count in a decade.

State Law Enforcement Division agents have been on the ground here for two months trying to help local police get a handle on the violence, but the street warfare continues to claim new victims.

Jason Brown, a friend of Tierra's family, understands their frustration. He paused from helping them move Friday to lift his shirt and show off mottled scars from six bullets that pierced his body in November.

Brown, 29, said he was driving through town with friends when someone opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, riddling the car with bullets.

"I was just one millimeter away from being dead," he said, shaking his head. "I'm doing better now, but I had to spend weeks in a hospital and couldn't work. It just changed my whole life. Someone has got to find a way to stop this shooting and killing."

State Law Enforcement Division Chief Reggie Lloyd said he and local law enforcement are trying to do just that, but it's slow going.

The area has been living with an "unacceptable level of violence" for a long time. Thugs are used to settling their differences with guns, and people are fearful of speaking out against them because they see offenders get arrested and come right back out on the street, he said.

"I think they have just been overwhelmed with these knuckleheads who have no fear for their own lives or anyone else's," Lloyd said. "Every time we go down there, I am struck by the level of violence they are dealing with. The community has been in fear for so long and has limited resources to deal with it."

Authorities acknowledge at least two gangs -- Dooley Hill and Sand Hill -- appear to be involved in a feud but won't rule out that others might be involved as well. As for what sparked the feud, theories abound but no clear answer has emerged. Their enmity, however, seems to date back several years and runs deep, authorities said.

"I don't know if we'll ever know why they feuded with each other," Lloyd said. "They are just a bunch of thugs who don't like each other and, unfortunately, they have had virtual impunity to run around and shoot at each other."

SLED arrived in town in the wake of Brown's shooting and another drive-by fusillade that occurred just two days earlier, killing a 20-month-old girl and two of her relatives at Gerideau and McDaniel streets.

They responded with a show of force, enlisting a small army of federal, state, county and local law enforcement officers in a swarm of patrols that placed the sparsely populated county under a virtual lockdown.

Still, shootings continued. A man was gunned down outside a private club in Smoaks in November. Then, a key witness in the Gerideau Street killings was shot in the parking lot of a Rivers Street nightclub in December.

Tierra's shooting on Jan. 17, which also left Tayren Latrell Ford, 26, wounded, occurred just down the street from the same club.

The ongoing gunplay has frightened and frustrated citizens. The county's chief prosecutor, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, has asked for a state grand jury investigation into the violence, calling it the region's best option for ending the cycle of shootings.

Lloyd agreed to the move on Friday while maintaining that his investigators are making solid progress and pulling together "good leads and evidence." He appealed for the community's patience.

Lloyd said the county needs long-term solutions to the violence, and he wants residents to trust that SLED is committed to being a partner in that battle. "We need to give them some confidence that we are not just going to be there for the short term, but for the long haul as well."

To that end, the agency is working on a deal with County Council that could have SLED relocating its Lowcountry offices from North Charleston to Walterboro, possibly within the next few months, Lloyd said.

The move would give SLED a more central location for its field office and a "stronger and more regular presence" in the area. On any given day, a couple dozen agents could be working out of the office, he said.

Sheriff George Malone said he would welcome SLED establishing a full-time office in the county. "It will definitely help," he said. "Just having their presence here has been helpful."

Few people are more frustrated with the violence than Malone, who is convinced that people in the community know who is committing the violence and why. "They just won't come forward with information," he said. "If people would just cooperate with law enforcement, that would make a big difference."

In the meantime, the community is left to hope that calm prevails and to go about its business as best it can. Walterboro Mayor Bill Young said he has no doubts his town will survive.

"Every community has problems from time to time," he said. "But we are going to deal with it and move on. Walterboro is still a great place to live."

The victims of the latest shooting on Rivers Street didn't seem so sure of that Friday morning. Their main priority was moving out as quickly as possible.

As a pair of pit bull puppies wrestled on the front porch, family members hurriedly carted mattresses, beds and other furniture from the home and loaded it into the moving truck. A pair of bullet holes frayed the siding on the home.

"Something has to be done or someone is going to get shot or killed again real soon," Brown repeated. "It's just a matter of time."

Timeline of string of shootings

August 6, 2008: Colleton County Deputy Dennis Compton was shot to death while responding to a burglary alarm. Travis Javon Harris, 20, of Smoaks, and Jacoby Fields, 19, of Walterboro, are charged with murder, second-degree burglary involving violence and four counts of first-degree burglary.

April 7, 2009: Michael Ray Trappier, 31, is shot to death in front of a Cottageville-area mobile home. Deputies charge Jimmie Lee Garland, Jr., 37, with murder. (Not considered gang-related.)

April 10, 2009: Donald Green, 27, dies after being shot multiple times behind Spirits Lounge on Jefferies Highway. Deputies charge Derrick Phillip Leonard Fishburne, 24, with murder.

April 13, 2009: Kelvin Mitchell survives after being shot in the throat on Cane Branch Road. Deputies charge Trevor Courtney Fishburne, 20, and Elijah Charles Brown, Jr., 19, with assault and battery with intent to kill.

May 25, 2009: Marlene Linder, 42, is killed by two shotgun blasts at 3:30 a.m. while trying to enter her Briarleaf Circle home. No one has been charged.

June 17, 2009: Adela Pinckney, 38, is shot to death while lying on her bed with one of her four children. A shotgun was fired through her bedroom window. No one has been charged.

Nov. 9, 2009: Three people are shot to death and six are injured while hanging out in front of their house on Gerideau Street. Shaniyah Burden, 20 months old; Christopher Powell, 21; and Charles Kittrell, 45, are killed. Authorities have charged Danziel Chapman, 19, with one count of murder and said they expect to make more arrests.

Nov. 11, 2009: Two men in a car are shot not far from where family members of the Gerideau Street shooting victims live. The driver, 29, told deputies he was driving on Robertson Boulevard when someone in a white car opened fire, injuring two passengers. Deputies have yet to charge anyone in this shooting.

Nov. 28, 2009: Keno Delean Nixon, 30, dies at a hospital after he was shot in the face at 4 a.m. near the private club The Spot, just outside of Smoaks. Deputies charged Timothy Sierra Kelly, 22, and Antwan Demetric McMillan, 21, with murder.

Dec. 13, 2009: Kaylon Aiken, 23, is shot in the arm at the Apollo Lounge on Rivers Street. Deputies charged Angel Sherie Farmer, 21, with assault and battery with intent to kill.

Dec. 28, 2009: Jermaine Patrick Lawton is shot in the left leg at Druid Hills Apartments. Walterboro Police charged Brantley Tremain Washington, 19, with assault and battery with intent to kill.

Jan. 17, 2010: Tierra Jessica Singleton, 12, is hit in the head and hand by shotgun fire while sitting on the couch of her Rivers Street home. Tayron Latrell Ford, 26, also was shot in the drive-by. No one has been charged.