A 15-year-old girl was shot in the left shoulder in Orangeburg over the weekend after officers responded to a report of a man firing a gun into a crowd near St. Paul Apartments, and investigators still have not announced any arrests. The girl was treated at a local hospital with a wound that had both an entry and exit point, according to police, while the exact circumstances connecting the gunfire to her injury remain under investigation.
According to the WIS News 10, an officer was dispatched to 544 Salley Street around 10:37 p.m. on October 3 after a report that a man had fired a gun into a crowd. When the officer arrived, they found a gathering at the location and heard what sounded like a single gunshot near St. Paul Apartments. People at the complex told the officer the shot had come from the lower part of the property.
The same officer was then sent to MUSC Health Orangeburg at 11:24 p.m., where the juvenile girl was being treated for a gunshot wound to her left shoulder. Per the report, the girl's mother told police she had heard a gunshot inside their apartment on Fletcher Street, and the girl came inside afterward before she and her mother went to the hospital. The girl was shot on the front porch at St. Paul Apartments on Fletcher Street. The station's report does not clarify the exact sequence connecting the gunfire reported near St. Paul Apartments to the shot that reportedly struck inside the Fletcher Street residence.
Trauma Care at a Regional Hospital
The girl was treated at MUSC Health Orangeburg, a 286-bed regional acute care hospital with a Level III Trauma Center and a 24-hour emergency department that joined the Medical University of South Carolina system in 2023, according to MUSC Health. The facility serves as a key trauma resource for the surrounding region. Orangeburg County Council members had previously pressed the hospital in February 2025 to address emergency department wait times after resident complaints about care delays, per EMS1.
As of the latest update, the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety has not announced any arrests or released additional details about the shooting. The department operates as a consolidated police and fire agency under Director Charles P. Austin Sr., a former Columbia police chief appointed to lead the agency in 2022, according to WLTX.
Gun Violence Persists Despite Falling Crime Numbers
The shooting comes as the City of Orangeburg reported in October 2026 that overall crime dropped more than 34% from January through September compared to the same period last year. Even so, Austin specifically flagged gun-related aggravated assaults as an ongoing area of concern, according to the City of Orangeburg. Statewide violent crime fell 8.4% from 2023 to 2024, while 41% of people arrested for weapon-law violations were under 25.
This is not the first gunfire incident in an Orangeburg residential area this fall. The Orangeburg Department of Public Safety previously responded to a shooting on September 18, 2026, in which a 29-year-old man was hospitalized after early-morning gunfire at a home on Lancaster Street, as reported by The Times and Democrat.
Potential Charges if Suspects Are Identified
If investigators identify a suspect in the shooting, South Carolina law offers several potential charging paths depending on what evidence they develop. Under South Carolina Code § 16-3-29, attempted murder carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison, and state law prohibits probation or a suspended sentence upon conviction. A lesser but still serious alternative, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature under South Carolina Code § 16-3-600, covers unlawfully injuring a person by means likely to cause death or great bodily injury and carries up to 20 years in prison. Separately, South Carolina Code § 16-23-410 makes pointing or presenting a firearm at another person a felony punishable by up to five years in prison or a discretionary fine.
Should a juvenile ultimately be implicated, South Carolina Code § 63-19-1210 gives family court judges the authority to transfer defendants aged 14 and older to General Sessions Court to stand trial as adults on serious felony charges. No such determination has been made in this case, and police have not named any suspects. The investigation remains open as of the latest reporting.
