By HEATHER WALTERS
On May 14, officers responded to a 911 emergency call in the Green Pond community, where a female suspect allegedly tried to shoot another female motorist who passed her along Green Pond Highway.
The suspect is 33-year-old Lechelle Sade Bradley. She is charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
This newspaper reported on this incident in last week’s issue.
Though this is an isolated incident, and is the first documented case of road rage in Colleton County this year, this is another incident in a series of violent acts coming from the Green Pond community.
To date, the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office has documented 7 shooting incidents that have occurred in the Green Pond community so far this year. This information was provided by the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office through a Freedom of Information request.
Four of the seven reported shooting incidents this year are for discharging a firearm.
The remaining three are for separate shootings that have occurred in that community.
The Green Pond community is a large, rural community in Colleton County. When compareing the number of suspects this year – about seven – to the number of people who live in Green Pond, the crime rate may seem insignificant. But the violent acts happening this year already outweigh those that occurred in the community last year.
To put the 2021 crime statistics into perspective, the sheriff’s office had three documented shooting incidents in the Green Pond community for the entire year of 2020.
The three shooting-related crimes in 2020 in Green Pond were all for discharging a firearm.
When asked about the crime coming out of the Green Pond community, Colleton County Sheriff Buddy Hill said that he wants the entire community to be invested in crime prevention efforts.
“Crime prevention is everyone’s business. Law enforcement and community partnerships working together to prevent and solve a crime are critical,” he said.
Hill said the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March of 2020, has limited the sheriff’s office ability to build relationships within the community. “With the vaccination distribution, we're hoping to be back out into our local communities continuing these efforts of transparency, trust, and communication,” he said.
“One of my primary focuses, when I took office, is getting out into our communities, building trust, and broadening our relationships, to let our citizens know they can count on and trust their local law enforcement.”
There are suspects in these cases, and the investigations into them are ongoing. When asked if these incidents are all related, or if the majority of these crimes are being committed by the same suspects, sheriff’s office Spokeswoman Shalane Lowes said she can’t comment on the details, because the cases are still under investigation.
However, sheriff’s office investigators are being blocked by a lack of cooperation from some of the victims in these cases.
“Along with these efforts, it takes our citizens reporting suspicious activity and criminal behavior in their area to help us prevent and solve the potential crime. The result of these relationships is a better, safer Colleton,” said Hill.
