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.
February 25 | Traffic arrest
Police attempted to stop a car on Savannah Highway. When the car pulled over into a gas station and looked like it was coming to a stop, the driver accelerated back out into traffic, running red lights and travelling at over 90 miles per hour. At which point, the officer stopped chasing the vehicle. Later, when officers were patrolling an apartment complex near where the car had sped away, a car matching the same description was pulled over in the parking lot. The driver admitted to having been the one from earlier. “Man, damn, I’m sorry, sir. I shouldn’t have run. I got scared. I don’t have a license. It’s suspended.”
February 25 | Theft from a building
A Bantry Circle man returned to his apartment after work to find someone had stolen the $5,000 in cash he kept under his mattress and a $400 Rolex ring. The only person who had access to his apartment during that time was a service man, who took a few minutes to fix a broken cabinet door. A neighbor saw the service man leave without those items.
February 25 | Forgery, counterfeit
A West Ashley funeral home reported that a $2,340 check they had sent to a Goldsboro, N.C. business had been cashed illegally at a North Charleston bank. The North Carolina business said several checks from other funeral homes had been stolen from their mailbox.
February 26 | Drugs, narcotics violation
Police pulled over a car near the intersection of Savannah Highway and Dobbin Road for having changed lanes erratically. When the officer smelled what he said was the odor of burnt marijuana, the officer asked the two men if they had any weapons, to which they said no. While frisking one of the men, a small amount of marijuana was discovered. An officer then searched the car, finding the protruding butt of a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson hidden in the car’s center console. The handgun had a single full metal jacket round in the magazine, but none in the chamber. When asked about the firearm, the driver replied: “Man, I put that gun there as soon as I seen we were getting stopped. I carry that gun everywhere because the police be shooting [expletive], and I don’t have time for that [expletive].”
February 26 | Simple assault
A young woman told police that she had visited her ex-boyfriend at his Fox Ridge Court apartment because he had been making threats about hurting himself. The young woman said everything was fine until her ex discovered she had been “talking” to one of her former boyfriends, at which point he threw her to the ground and began kicking her in the side. The ex’s mother, who was at work, called for EMS and police to conduct a wellness check on him, and he was taken to MUSC. Soon after, the woman began receiving threatening text messages, including: “I’m going to kill you when I get out,” and “Kill you then [redacted]. Hope he was worth it,” and “I hope your life was [expletive] worth it.”
February 26 | Theft from a building
A West Ashley special needs student reported someone had stolen his school-issued iPad from his backpack. The student, who needs assistance packing and unpacking his backpack, as well as assistance getting to and from class, said he had placed it in his backpack earlier in the day, but later, it was gone. One teacher overheard some of her students say, “they can’t ever prove anything.”
February 26 | Criminal domestic violence, simple assault
A Robinhood Court woman confronted her boyfriend as to why he had deleted messages from his phone with another woman. The man said it was his phone and none of her business, and from there the argument soon escalated into a physical altercation. The woman claimed the man began hitting her to the point that her young daughter jumped the man from behind, and grabbed his neck, prompting the man to say, “Get off me, bitch.” The man’s cousin apparently separated the two, giving the woman chance to gather her daughter and leave, but she claims when she doubled back to get her purse, the man began punching her again. When officers arrived, the man claimed the woman had been drinking and fell several times. When officers the extensive bruising to the woman’s face, they arrested the man.