Aiken shooting kills 1 as deadly crime wave spills across the river

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - One person is dead after a shooting Tuesday night in Aiken as a deadly crime wave seems to have moved across the Savannah River from Augusta.

Aiken Department of Public Safety officers responded around 11:04 p.m. Tuesday to a report of gunfire at Hampton Avenue and Assembly Street.

Once there, authorities found a Nissan Versa stopped on Hampton Avenue at Assembly Street. The driver was unresponsive and was pronounced dead on the scene from at least one gunshot wound.

Aiken County Coroner Darryl Ables identified him as 49-year-old Charles L. Bradley, of Aiken.

Bradley will be autopsied in Newberry.

The incident was one of three reports of gunshots investigated Tuesday night by the Aiken Department of Public Safety. The others were at 676 Aldrich St. and 1316 Aldrich St.

At the Aldrich Street locations in Crosland Park, officers found damage to residences from gunfire, but there were no injuries.

The Aiken Department of Public Safety said it had made no arrests and had no suspect information to release on Tuesday night’s incidents or a shooting about 2:58 p.m. Saturday that injured a male victim on Edgefield Avenue near York Street.

The shootings in Aiken come amid a wave of violent crime in the CSRA that had mostly been confined to the Georgia side of the CSRA.

Aside from a shoot-out with officers and hostage incident April 20, one of the first signs of the spread into South Carolina was gunfire liked to road rage last week in North Augusta. A driver brandished a gun and shot at another vehicle Friday in the area of Knox Avenue and Martintown Road. The victim suffered a minor cut to his ear.

Then there was the shooting Saturday in Aiken, followed by Tuesday night’s gunfire at three locations.

Other than the Aiken incidents, fatal shootings in the CSRA since April 14 include:

• A shooting just before 7:30 p.m. April 23 that claimed the life of Rodriquez Dunn, 31, at the Olmstead Homes in the 2100 block of B Street in Augusta. Dunn suffered at least one gunshot wound and died at the scene.
• A dead female was found just before noon April 19 outside a vacant home in the 1500 block of Conklin Lane in Augusta. The death was considered suspicious from the start, but the coroner ruled that the death was the result of a homicide. The victim was identified as Brittany Kristina Dougherty, 29, of Augusta,
• Jenefer Holt Herron, 52, of Augusta, died late April 18 after being shot during an argument outside the Circle K at 1739 Walton Way in Augusta. The shooter fled in a gray sport utility vehicle, but suspect Yelena Buckner, 33, of Augusta, was later found and arrested on charges of murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, deputies reported.
• At 7:23 a.m. April 18, deputies were called to the 1900 block of Old Savannah Road in Augusta, where a passing motorist found Johnnie Coleman, 72, of Augusta, who’d been shot dead.
• JaJuan Russell, 21, of Augusta, was fatally shot early April 17 in the 3700 block of Oslo Road in Augusta. Russell was taken to Augusta University Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 1:14 a.m. An autopsy was scheduled with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
• Sandersville police found the body of a man April 16 inside a home on Gwendolyn Street while responding to a report of a domestic dispute at the address. Santavious Louis Roberts, 35, of Sandersville, has been arrested.
• Brandon Peebles, 24, of Girard, was shot around 10:45 p.m. April 14 in the 2300 block of Prague Court, the same neighborhood as Sunday’s shooting. He was pronounced dead at 11:23 p.m. Bowen said the victim’s body was sent to the GBI.

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