A minor was shot in the hand early Friday morning near St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Spartanburg, and police say he drove himself to the hospital before officers even arrived on scene. No suspects have been identified in the shooting, which happened as the teen sat with his cousin near the church playground just after 2:30 a.m.
According to FOX Carolina, Spartanburg officers responded to WO Ezell Boulevard around 2:43 a.m. after reports of shots fired. The victim told police he and his cousin had been sitting in front of the church playground when he noticed a red sedan pull into the parking lot, turn around, slowly pass by, and then leave — a moment that reportedly left him with a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
Shortly after, as the teen began pulling his car out of the lot, he told officers he heard gunshots and instinctively raised his hand to try to block them. He was struck in the hand and said he did not know whether the shots had been aimed at him specifically. His cousin, who was riding in the passenger seat, told police the gunfire seemed to come from shrubs near where the car had been parked.
Victim Drove Himself To The Hospital
Rather than wait for help at the scene, the teen drove himself and his cousin straight to the hospital. Once there, officers observed bullet holes in both the hood and the front windshield of his car, confirming that the vehicle itself had been struck multiple times during the shooting, the outlet reported.
Police have not identified any suspects, and the circumstances that led to the gunfire — including who may have been in the red sedan or hiding in the shrubs — remain under investigation. FOX Carolina said it was working to learn more about the case.
Another Early-Morning Shooting The Same Day
The church-lot shooting was not the only gunfire Spartanburg police were investigating in the early hours of Friday. In a separate incident, a man was hospitalized after being shot in the upper left shoulder area, according to a second report from FOX Carolina. That man told officers he was shot around 2:30 a.m. in the 700 block of Crescent Avenue after hearing someone yell “That's him,” followed by three gunshots, prompting him to run toward a wooded area at Irwin Park to hide and call for help. As with the church shooting, no suspects have been identified in that case, and there is nothing in either police account tying the two incidents together.
Spartanburg has seen other gun violence in recent memory. Last November, police investigated a drive-by shooting on Collins Avenue, where officers responding around 4:29 a.m. learned that a suspect driving a white SUV had shot at a woman as she arrived home in her vehicle, per FOX Carolina. In another case, WYFF4 reported that a man was shot in the left hand at a gas station near W.O. Ezell Boulevard and Winchester Place during a Monday afternoon dispute, after he reportedly tried to enter another vehicle while it was moving; investigators said the two parties had ongoing disputes.
What The City's Own Crime Data Shows
None of these incidents have been publicly connected to one another, but they come even as Spartanburg police describe overall crime as trending downward. The department's 2025 crime report, detailed by FOX Carolina, found that property crime had fallen to about 25% below the city's 10-year average. Yet the same report showed that 76% of violent crimes recorded were aggravated assaults, and 57% of those assaults involved or allegedly involved a firearm — a detail that underscores how guns continue to drive the city's most serious violent incidents even as overall crime numbers improve.
The report also noted that 89 guns were stolen from vehicles across the city, with 56 of those thefts showing no sign of forced entry, pointing to a pattern of unlocked cars contributing to weapons ending up in the wrong hands. Investigators have not said whether any of that data relates to the shooting near St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, and for now, the case remains open with no suspects named.
