Authorities on Monday announced the arrest of a second man in connection with Saturday's shootout inside a busy shopping mall in South Carolina's capital, one of two mass shootings that rocked the state over the Easter holiday weekend. Marquise Love Robinson, 20, was taken into custody overnight and authorities are also seeking a third suspect, Amari Sincere-Jamal Smith, Columbia Police Chief WH “Skip” Holbrook said during a news conference. Both men face charges of attempted murder and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery, the AP reports. Nine people were shot and another six injured in the rush to exit Columbiana Centre in Columbia, authorities said, with no fatalities reported. Holbrook said one person remained in the intensive care unit Monday.
Police said they did not believe the shooting was a random attack and that the three identified suspects knew each other. Holbrook said the men brought guns into the mall, with police seizing two handguns believed to be used in the shootout. “Emotions took over, you had firearms that were introduced into the dispute, gunfire was exchanged and innocent people got injured in the crossfire,” Holbrook said. The first person arrested in the shooting, 22-year-old Jewayne M. Price, was one of three people initially detained by law enforcement as a person of interest. Price’s attorney, Todd Rutherford, told news outlets Sunday that his client fired a gun at the mall, but in self-defense. Rutherford said Price faces a charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol because he legally owned his gun but did not have a permit to carry a weapon.
Price now also faces an attempted murder charge and nine counts of aggravated assault and battery, police said. Robinson is scheduled for a bond hearing Tuesday morning, according to police. Authorities have asked the public for help locating Smith, 21, of Columbia, who is also facing a charge of unlawfully carrying a pistol. Three mass shootings in the US over the Easter holiday weekend—two in South Carolina and one in Pennsylvania—capped a monthlong spate of gun violence across the nation. “This is not an indictment on gun ownership,” Holbrook said. ”This is an indictment on the availability of firearms on the street for people that have illegal intentions, nefarious intentions to use those firearms against others.”
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