Mug Shots

The following were taken from actual incident reports filed last week by the City of Charleston Police Department. These are not convictions and the names of businesses, complainants, and suspects have been left off to protect the innocent. All suspects are  innocent until proven guilty, of course.
August 27 | Weapons law violation
Police responded to a report of shots fired at an Orleans Road shopping strip. When they arrived, two individuals walked out from behind a dumpster. The two said they were walking up to the dumpster earlier as a man and a woman had parked next to it, and were putting items into it. The woman, startled, demanded, “why you walking up on us?” The couple then got into their car and drove off, and soon there were between six and seven shots ringing out, causing the two pedestrians to duck behind the dumpster. Both said they hadn’t seen either one of the couple with a gun, but both believed the two fired a gun in the air as they drove off. Crime scene techs found seven .40-caliber casings at the scene.
August 28 | Recovered stolen vehicle
An automatic license plate reader alerted police that a stolen BMW 325i was being driven down Savannah Highway. When an officer pulled up behind the car in traffic, the driver reportedly became nervous, and when the officer activated his lights, the driver directed his car into the parking lot of a nearby fast-food restaurant. But when he was about to park, the driver of the stolen car roared out into traffic, and attempted to lose the trailing officer via the I-526 interchange. When the officer continued to follow the car, the driver slowed his car down, opened the door, and jumped out in the middle of the highway, letting the car slowly come to a stop in the fence of a nearby motel. Officers already in the area heard the reports of the getaway, and were able to arrest the suspect within minutes.
August 28 | Vandalism
Police arrived at a Banty Circle apartment where they found a witness harboring a neighbor. The witness said that she had seen her neighbor running down the street, visibly upset, with her father running after her, screaming, “stupid bitch.” Apparently, the father, who lives out of state, was angry she had spent some of the money in a bank account they share. When the father became irate, the woman asked him to leave, and he reportedly responded by first grabbing her by the hair and then punching a 27-inch television.
August 28 | Intimidation
Police responded to a report involving aggressive behavior at a Savannah Highway convenience store. When they arrived, a man inside the store said he had taken refuge there after an inebriated man riding a bicycle and brandishing a machete had threatened him, saying, “I am going to kill you.” A man matching the description, but without a machete, was picked up nearby and brought back to the store. One witness corroborated the earlier presence of the machete, but several other witnesses, also inebriated, declined to comment or get involved.
August 28 | Stolen property
Two days after a Jaywood Drive man reported his pickup truck stolen, police spotted it committing several traffic violations with another man behind the wheel. When an officer attempted a traffic stop of the truck, the driver drove off and then left it still running in the middle of an intersection.
August 28 | Credit card fraud
A Martin Road man told police that someone had been using his credit card information to make unwarranted purchases. The man, having checked his car’s activity, said someone had spent close to $400 on his account, including a nearly $266 spree at a local convenience store.