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 out to protect the innocent. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty … of course.
April 6
Sex Offense
A woman who had just finished undergoing a sexual assault examination at a local hospital, told police she’d been sexually assaulted while receiving a massage at West Ashley chiropractor’s office.
April 6
Robbery, Firearm
A man entered a Magwood Drive store, produced a handgun and told an employee: “Be quiet. Give me the money in the register and your cellphone.” The employee gave the man the money, but told him she didn’t have a cellphone, as he backed out of the business.
April 6
Suicide Attempt
Officers responded to a “man down” report at Northbridge Park, where they found an unresponsive man with a pulse and shallow breathing. The officers administered a sternum rub, which aroused the man somewhat, but he remained incoherent and unable to form complete sentences. Emergency medical staff arrived and began working with the man, taking him to the hospital, where he said he took “several” Valium to “sedate himself” after an argument with his girlfriend.
April 6
Breaking and Entering
A local real estate agent noticed at lunchtime that someone had broken into and vandalized one of their clients’ home. Driving around the neighborhood, she found two high school-aged boys walking about, and asked them if they had done it and what school they attended. One boy said he attended James Island Charter High School. Police soon found a student identification card at the home, and pot-smoking accoutrement, as well as holes kicked in the walls.
April 6
Aggravated Assault
Police found a man who’d been shot lying in a “semi-fetal position” on the floor of a St. Andrews convenience store, bleeding from his left side and right shin. “I was shot. I had just left my house and walked on Tripe (Street). I didn’t see who shot me, then I came here. I can’t talk anymore.”
April 7
Drug Violation
An officer spied a vehicle not following traffic laws and pulled the car over on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard. The passenger would only lower his window halfway, but it was enough for the officer to smell a strong odor of marijuana emanating. A search of the car and its occupants produced $860 of marijuana, $1,400 in cocaine base, a .380-caliber handgun, and a driver with a suspended license.
April 7
Robbery, Firearm
A man reported being held up at gunpoint on the West Ashley Greenway, with the robber making off with over $350 in cash. The man said he’d been sitting outside a Savannah Highway grocery store, where he charged his phone and uses the bathroom. When the store locked their bathrooms for the night, the man walked to a nearby tennis center to use the portable toilets. On the way back; the robber stopped the man and asked for directions before producing the handgun.
April 7
Drug Violation
Police responded to a Proximity Drive address where they found a man staggering outside his car, with a bevy of pills on the ground and the floorboards of his car. The man said he’d taken “one or two” Xanax pills after a fight with his girlfriend the night before, a medicine he does not have a prescription for, apparently. His girlfriend reported the man had a “long history” of pill use.