Two teens arrested after deadly shooting at Columbia, South Carolina Airbnb
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WJBF) — A shooting at an Airbnb in Columbia, South Carolina, left one teenager dead and three others hospitalized.
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, authorities said the shooting happened around 5:15 a.m. Friday. Officers were patrolling the Elmwood Park neighborhood when they got a call about a possible break-in. That call quickly escalated to reports of shots fired — and then to someone being shot.
When officers got to the home on Lincoln Street, they forced their way in after hearing screams inside. 'They immediately encountered an incredibly chaotic scene with multiple victims,' Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook said. 'Four young people shot multiple times.'
Eighteen-year-old Jayden Cavon Brackens died at the scene. 'He died from multiple gunshot wounds and nothing else,' Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford said. 'Please be mindful of what you post on social media. His mom, his family, his community. They're reading these posts that you're putting out that contain false information.'
The three other victims — two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old — are still in the hospital. All are from the Columbia area.
Police described the scene inside the Airbnb as devastating. 'This shooting crime scene can only be described as a war zone,' Holbrook said. 'The level of destruction caused by the gun and the gunfire was really just indescribable.'
More than 30 shell casings were found from multiple weapons, including an assault-style rifle.
So far, two arrests have been made. A 15-year-old male is facing charges including armed robbery and possession of a weapon during a crime. An 18-year-old has been charged with murder, three counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, and more. His full name was not released.
Police are still looking for a third suspect, another 15-year-old boy. 'We anticipate additional charges and additional arrests,' Holbrook said. 'This investigation is advancing rapidly and effectively.'
Cornerstone Properties owns the house where the shooting happened and was being rented as an Airbnb. Police have issued a notice of intent to declare the property a public nuisance. 'The owner has been ordered to cease operations of the Airbnb immediately,' Holbrook added. 'They've been 100% cooperative.'
Some neighbors say they've long had concerns about short-term rentals in the area. Holbrook said that's a separate issue that the city's code enforcement division may address.
As for motive, police say it's still unclear. 'We have some working theories,' Holbrook said. 'But we do not have a motive that we're in a position to speak on with certainty.'
Anyone with information is asked to contact Columbia Police or call Crime Stoppers.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
33 minutes ago
- CNN
Sports betting is legal and growing more popular. Harassment of athletes by angry gamblers is rising too
Gabby Thomas being harassed at last weekend's Grand Slam Track meet was shocking – except, actually, it wasn't, given how often it seems to be happening. Thomas, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, said she was verbally abused at the meet, reporting on X that a 'grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults.' Thomas' statement was in reply to another post on X – which has since been deleted – showing a video of a person heckling Thomas while she was on the starting line, shouting, 'You're a choke artist; you're going down, Gabby.' The social media user bragged about how his actions had benefitted his bet, writing: 'I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win,' alongside a screenshot of two multi-leg bets on the FanDuel sportsbook platform. FanDuel said it had banned the person responsible for the abuse from its platform, explaining it 'condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes.' 'Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel,' the statement shared with CNN Sports added. It was in 2018 that the US Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law, which had prohibited most states from allowing sports betting. Gambling on sports is now legal in 39 states, which experts warn has opened the floodgates for a torrent of abuse towards professional and collegiate leagues from bettors who blame them for their financial losses. In March, the NCAA launched a campaign aimed at tackling what it described as 'the alarming prevalence of abuse and harassment student-athletes face from angry fans who lost a bet.' According to an analysis of abusive messages sent via social media to college athletes, coaches and officials during the Division I championships, 12% – some 740 messages – were related to sports betting, according to the NCAA. Instances of such messages included one user who threatened a college athlete with the message, 'Yo no big deal but if you don't get 22 points and 12 boards everyone you know and love will Be dead,' according to the analysis, which was produced with Signify Group. Meanwhile, over 540 abusive betting-related messages – including death threats – were leveled at men's and women's basketball student-athletes and game officials during March Madness, a preliminary set of data trends found. Clint Hangebrauck, managing director of enterprise risk management at the NCAA told CNN: 'I think athletes are under attack right now, frankly, on social media and in person, and a lot of the people slinging the biggest bullets are sports bettors.' Hangebrauck, who has worked at the NCAA for 15 years, said that there has been a surge of athletes receiving abuse since the federal ban on sports betting was struck down, adding that in certain states – including Ohio and North Carolina – a barrage of abuse towards student athletes was 'almost immediate.' The NCAA is now seeking a ban on proposition bets, colloquially known as prop bets, on college athletes, calling the phenomenon 'a mental health nightmare.' Prop bets are made on outcomes not associated with the final score and are often based on individual performances. 'You could even perform well, and you're receiving all this negative feedback from betters because you didn't hit specific betting lines,' Hangebrauck added, noting that about half of the states that do allow gambling in the US have banned prop bets on student athletes. Jason Lopez, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin told CNN Sports: 'The way that the newly legalized sports betting universe works is that it's very common to make prop bets where, even though it's a team sport, you can actually bet on the performance of individual players.' 'It turns what could be a team game into an individual performance, too. And so it's easy to then focus whatever anger you have on the bet at individual players,' Lopez, whose research focuses on sports media and betting, explained. The issue of bettors harassing athletes is widespread across sporting disciplines, with tennis and NBA players reporting instances of abuse. For a few professional athletes, it's an opportunity to punch back. In reply to a social media user who gave him grief about his seeming nonchalance over a bad performance in a game, NBA superstar Kevin Durant posted on X in November 2024, 'Stop blaming me for losing money because you have a gambling problem.' Great dub suns, and for my parlayers, better luck next time lol For others, however, social media comments made cross any acceptable line. In the past few weeks, MLB players Lance McCullers Jr. and Liam Hendriks have both reported that their families have been on the receiving end of death threats. Houston Astros pitcher McCullers Jr. revealed he received threats from a man who took to social media and threatened to find his kids and 'murder them.' The Houston Police Department later traced these threats to an intoxicated sports bettor from overseas who had lost money betting on the Astros' May 10 game against the Cincinnati Reds, per Reuters. Boston Red Sox pitcher Hendriks reported similar abuse, telling that 'with the rise of sports gambling, it's gotten a lot worse.' 'Threats against my life and my wife's life are horrible and cruel,' Hendriks wrote in a post on his Instagram Stories, according to 'You need help. Comments telling me to commit suicide and how you wish I died from cancer is disgusting and vile. Maybe you should take a step back and re-evaluate your life's purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their families. He added: 'Whether it be Venmo requests, whether it be people telling you in their comments, 'Hey, you blew my parlay. Go f*ck yourself,' kind of stuff. And then it's, 'Go hang yourself. You should kill yourself. I wish you died from cancer.' 'That one kind of hit a little too close to home for me with everything I've gone through,' Hendriks, who in 2023 announced he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, added. Joe Maloney, senior vice president of strategic communications for the American Gaming Association, told CNN Sports in a statement: 'The outcome of a bet is never an invitation to harass or threaten athletes, coaches, or officials. Abuse of any kind has no place in sports.' 'The legal, regulated industry offers the transparency and accountability needed to identify bad actors and collaborate with leagues, regulators, and law enforcement to deter misconduct and enforce consequences. Unlike illegal and unregulated market apps or bookies, legal operators work every day to uphold the integrity of competition and ensure a responsible wagering environment,' Maloney added. Lopez pointed out that, while sports betting has only recently been legalized and commercialized across the United States, most sports have been associated with wagering since their beginnings, albeit in a more underground capacity up until recently. 'There's just a basic fact about (sports) companies and organizations that run these games for entertainment which is that gambling helps increase interest – it drives interest. So they like all the betting that's happening around them; it builds interest in their sport. 'Their athletes being abused, especially if they're collegiate athletes, could harm their entertainment product. So they have to take very public stances about this in order to try to mitigate the idea that you know this entertainment product is putting people at risk,' he added. Hangebrauck added to CNN: 'I think there's a responsible way to engage in sports betting, and a lot of fans and people do so. Ninety-six percent of people overall generally lose in sports betting in the long run, so just be responsible about how you react to that – own it yourself.'
Fox News
33 minutes ago
- Fox News
More than 20 people injured after boat catches fire in New York; captain charged with DWI
A boat captain was arrested after the vessel caught fire and injured more than 20 people near City Island in The Bronx over the weekend. Joshua Brito, 33, was charged with driving while intoxicated and reckless endangerment following the incident that happened on Saturday at around 8 p.m. near the east end of Hart Island, according to WABC. The 22 people on the boat were injured, including one person in critical condition. According to officials, Marine 4, a New York City Fire Department vessel, was doing a routine patrol in the area when the boat on fire was spotted in the Long Island Sound. Marine units pulled three people from the water while 19 others swam to shore on Hart Island before they were transported by Coast Guard, police and fire department units to nearby City Island to receive further medical evaluation at a hospital. "Marine 4 gave a verbal for a boat fire and multiple people in the water to the Bronx dispatcher," New York City Fire Department Assistant Chief Mike Meyers said in a statement. "At that point, the Bronx dispatcher had land units respond to come into City Island and begin to accept patients. Marine 4 grabbed three people out of the water. At that point, they transported them to one of the docks that was close by, where Engine 70 was waiting and EMS was waiting as well to begin CPR on the victims." "The other 19 folks swam to Hart Island," he continued. "They were just off the east end of Hart Island, and then they were picked up by the NYPD Coast Guard and FDNY boats and transported back over to the docks at the Yacht Club on City Island." Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the fire. "The boat, in order to fit that many people on it, had to be a pretty decent-sized boat," Meyers told reporters at the scene on Saturday. "Marine 4 did notice them earlier in the evening and they said there was a lot of people on that boat."
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Runaway pet zebra captured in Tennessee
A runaway pet zebra that was on the loose for more than a week in Tennessee and became an internet sensation in the process was captured Sunday, authorities said. Ed the Zebra was captured safely after being located in a pasture near a subdivision in the Christiana community in central Tennessee, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office confirmed. The sheriff's office said aviation crews captured the zebra. 'Ed was airlifted and flown by helicopter back to a waiting animal trailer,' the sheriff's office said in a statement. Video posted by the sheriff's office shows Ed wrapped in a net with his head sticking out as he is carried by the helicopter to the trailer. Ed arrived in Christiana on May 30, the sheriff's office said. His owner reported him missing the next day. The zebra was spotted and filmed running along Interstate 24, forcing deputies to shut the roadway. But Ed escaped into a wooded area. There were several sightings posted to social media. Ed was filmed trotting through a neighborhood. The zebra quickly became the subject of internet memes. One fake posting showed Ed dining at a Waffle House, a southern staple. Others had him visiting other Tennessee cities or panhandling on the side of the road. The pursuit of Ed came a month after a runway kangaroo shut down a section of Alabama interstate.
