Woman injured in drive-by shooting 11/28/2009 12:38 AM By KAREN DAILY Staff writer
An Aiken woman was shot late Thursday outside a home on Abbeville Avenue, where earlier this year a man was killed during what has been called a "drug-related" murder.
The victim, a 17-year-old Palm Drive woman, was taken to the hospital after she was struck by a bullet fired from a passing vehicle outside a house on Abbeville, officials said. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
The home is now occupied but was not lived in during the September murder. Police are not linking anyone currently living at that residence to either shooting.
Several witnesses told police they were standing outside the home about 10 p.m. Thursday when a dark, medium-sized four-door sedan traveling east on Abbeville drove by.
That's when the shots were heard, according to reports.
The group standing outside the home took off running, one man told police. He said noticed the teenager had been shot.
She was taken to the hospital.
The motive for the shooting has not been reported; however, the evening of Sept. 8, a drug-related murder occurred outside the same home, claiming the life of a 30-year-old man, officials said.
Donald McCalla, 30, died from multiple gunshot wounds he received while he, a woman and another man were sitting in a pickup truck outside the then empty home on Abbeville Avenue.
Neighbors called police around 8 p.m. after hearing gunshots in the neighborhood.
Investigators think at least one gunman emerged from a row of shrubbery near the home and began firing into the vehicle, but police have not said what the three were doing at the home when McCalla was struck.
The female driver then sped away from the home and took McCalla to Aiken Regional Medical Centers, where he was pronounced dead.
Aiken Public Safety later arrested two men for the homicide, charging 21-year-old Freddie L. Simpkins and 21-year-old Jeremy M. Holloway with murder, two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
Holloway is being held at the Aiken County detention center. He faces other charges from a previous incident in the county and was charged with kidnapping, as well.
Simpkins bonded out of jail.
His bond was set at $150,000. Bond on each charge was set at $37,500.
The woman shot Thursday and the woman who drove McCalla to the hospital in September are not the same person.
Anyone with information on the Thursday shooting is asked to contact CrimeStoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com.
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Comment Title: Re: sad
There is no heaven so you won't have to worry about segregation when you die.
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Posted by: On: Saturday, November 28, 2009 4:09 PM
Comment Title: black section
I don’t know what the person that said ‘most of the shootings in the county are white’ is smoking but they need to stop. All you have to do is read the paper and you will see by far most are black. It is mostly blacks shooting blacks.
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Posted by: On: Saturday, November 28, 2009 12:34 PM
Comment Title:
For the benefit of the person below, some of the shooters/drug dealers are actually from up north where their family has sent them down south to keep them safe. And the shootings do happen regularly in the low income neighborhoods of both black and white families--most of the shootings in the county are white. And if you look almost all of the crystal meth production/distribution suspects are white.
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Posted by: On: Saturday, November 28, 2009 11:37 AM
Comment Title: Shooting
One thug bonded out of jail. That is just crazy. maybe he is in on this shooting. keep letting them bond out and our judicial system will fail.
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Posted by: On: Saturday, November 28, 2009 9:11 AM
Comment Title: sad
so sad to still hear people talking about race of people. Is there going to be a black section in heaven? a white section? a yankee section? I guess IF you make it, you will see. I dont blame any race more than the other. This world is full of cruelty!
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Posted by: On: Saturday, November 28, 2009 8:26 AM
Comment Title:
Something needs to be done. There are more shootings here than in New York City! Get these thugs off the street! Next time it could be a child waiting for a school bus. Why is it always in neighborhoods that are primarily black? It is time to call in the FBI. This many shootings in a town this small, something big is wrong. And don't blame the yankees because all of the shooters that have been caught are from here, white and black!
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