Greenville County, South Carolina — On January 17, 2023, while Greenville County deputies were conducting a traffic stop on Wade Hampton Boulevard around 11 p.m. a gun was found inside the stopped vehicle. As they went to secure the gun from one of the three suspects, a shot was fired and the 16-year-old suspect was hit. Sheriff Hobart Lewis said it was determined that neither deputies involved in the incident fired their weapons and no policies consistent with the sheriff’s office protocol were violated. After learning the teen was shot, deputies said they rendered aid and the suspect was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
He was later released from the hospital and taken to the juvenile detention facility in Columbia, SC. The 16-year-old faces charges for unlawful possession of a pistol under the age of 18, unlawful carrying of a firearm, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and trafficking fentanyl. Another passenger, 20-year-old Joselito Leopard-Rivera, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana. He’s incarcerated in the Greenville County Detention Center where he’s awaiting a bond hearing. The vehicle’s driver wasn’t charged.
