Gunfire rang out near the Five Points fountain in Columbia at about 2 a.m. Sunday, sending officers scrambling to the 700 block of Saluda Avenue, though police say no one was hurt and nothing was damaged. By daylight, investigators were still piecing together who pulled the trigger and why.
According to WLTX, Columbia police officers responded to reports of shots fired near the fountain and recovered shell casings at the scene. The department reported no injuries and no property damage, and as of the station's report, no arrests had been made in connection with the gunfire itself.
Officers had been patrolling the area on foot when the shots were reported, and police continued working the case afterward by reviewing camera footage and interviewing witnesses, the station reported. Investigators have not said what sparked the gunfire or whether any suspects have been identified.
A Packed Homecoming Night Beforehand
The gunfire came hours after Five Points had drawn large Saturday-night crowds following South Carolina's homecoming win over Texas A&M, 17-9, per the same account. Deputy Police Chief Melron Kelly said officers are always assigned to the entertainment district, a standard presence rather than a response to any specific threat that night.
Kelly also addressed an arrest that happened hours before the shots were fired, when officers arrested a person with a gun in Five Points. He said that arrest was unrelated to the later gunfire, according to the station's report — a distinction police were careful to draw even as both incidents unfolded in the same stretch of the neighborhood within hours of each other.
Not the First Five Points Shooting This Year
Sunday's incident is far from the only gunfire Five Points has seen recently. A September shooting in a shopping-center parking lot at 1001 Harden Street left three people with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, and investigators recovered 97 spent shell casings along with 82 live rounds of ammunition at that scene, according to WACH. Several vehicles and nearby property were damaged in that shooting, and two arrests were eventually made.
Separately, a Sept. 5 shooting in the parking lot of the Five Points Food Lion injured three people ranging in age from 16 to 20, with police saying as many as three weapons were used, as reported by The Post and Courier. Another shooting in the 1100 block of Harden Street left a man shot and hospitalized at about 2:45 a.m.; The State reported that police identified and questioned a suspected shooter in that case, though no arrests had been reported as the investigation continued.
The Numbers Behind Columbia's Gun Problem
Statewide, violent crime in South Carolina fell for a third straight year, down 5.8 percent from 2022 to 2023, per The Post and Courier's reporting on crime trends. But within Columbia, the same reporting found that half of the city's shootings happen in just 3 percent of its total area, committed by less than 3 percent of the population living in those areas.
City efforts have shown some results: a 90-day violence-reduction push in 2024 coincided with a 54 percent drop in reported shootings in targeted neighborhoods and a 34 percent decline in ShotSpotter detections, the newspaper found. Still, 2024 marked a troubling milestone, with juveniles making up 22 percent of all shooting victims in the city — a historic high according to police data cited by the outlet.
For now, the Sunday morning gunfire near the fountain remains an open investigation, with police continuing to review footage and interview witnesses rather than naming a cause or a suspect.
