Drugs, handgun seized near campus
Columbia police arrested two USC students in two separate incidents last week in the waning hours of Thursday night and early into Friday morning.
Just before midnight, police got a call about two suspicious men near 600 Santee Avenue, near its intersection with Blossom Street, according to Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons.
The men said they weren’t carrying weapons, but a search of one of the men found a .25-caliber handgun, Timmons said.
The man, Joshua Isaiah Williams, 20, a second-year experimental psychology student, was arrested and is charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and resisting arrest, according to a release.
Williams does not have a concealed weapons permit, according to the release, and he isn’t of legal age to apply for one.
The incident follows just days after a violent weekend in the hospitality district, and city police promised to increase patrols there. Timmons said she couldn’t say whether the arrest was connected with the increased presence.
“We’ve always been in Five Points,” Timmons said. “We always bump up our presence from Thursday to Sunday.”
Shortly thereafter, at about 1:30 a.m. Friday, witnesses saw a woman driving erratically on the 1900 block of Greene Street, which is between Five Points and USC’s campus, Timmons said.
The woman allegedly hit a parked car with people inside and kept driving, according to a release, and witnesses told police she was heading toward campus.
An officer spotted the car on Blossom Street, near the Greek Village, and pulled the woman over.
Bailey Reed Bowers, 19, a second-year business student, was arrested and is charged with hit and run, possession of marijuana, possession of another controlled substance, possession of beer by a minor, open container and failure to yield right-of-way.
According to a release, an officer also found psychedelic mushrooms in Bowers’ car.
Police reports for the incidents had not yet been processed Friday afternoon, Timmons said, and were not available by press time.