Columbia Police Nab 25-Year-Old in Convenience Store Robbery Spree

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 25-year-old Columbia man surrendered to police Friday after a frantic manhunt tied him to four armed robberies at convenience stores across the city's southeast side, authorities announced. The suspect, whose name was not immediately released pending formal charging, allegedly brandished a handgun in each incident, demanding cash from registers at stores including a Kangaroo Express on Garners Ferry Road and a Circle K on Decker Boulevard. The string began April 19 with a pre-dawn stickup at a Metro Mart near the University of South Carolina campus, escalating community fears amid rising gun crime in the Capital City.[1] Investigators from the Columbia Police Department's Violent Crimes Division used surveillance video, witness tips and a stolen getaway vehicle to zero in on the suspect's hideout in the Meadowlake subdivision off Trenholm Road. 'This was a team effort with our patrol units and federal partners,' said Columbia Police Chief W.H. 'Skip' Holbrook in a briefing outside headquarters. No customers or employees were injured, though one clerk at the April 23 robbery on Farrow Road described the ordeal as 'terrifying,' locking herself in a cooler as the gunman fled with $1,200. The arrest caps a violent week that saw separate jewelry heists and carjackings strain local resources.[2] The suspect faces three counts of armed robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm during a violent crime and one count of unlawful carrying of a pistol, according to a Richland County Sheriff's Office warrant. He is held without bond at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, the same facility housing other recent robbery suspects like 19-year-old Michael Jyrel Davis. Columbia's robbery rate has spiked 15% year-over-year, per preliminary FBI data, prompting Mayor Daniel Rickenmann to pledge $2 million for community policing in high-crime corridors like this one. Prosecutors expect to present the case to a grand jury next month.