Suspect charged with Columbiana mall shooting argues self-defense

LEXINGTON, SC (WIS) – Two years and four months after a horrific Easter weekend shooting at the Columbiana Centre Mall, one of the suspects in the case appeared in court again Monday to argue he fired his gun in self-defense.

Jewayne Price, 24, is one of three people charged in connection with the mass shooting at the Harbison Boulevard mall on April 16, 2022.

Amari Smith and Marquise Robinson were also arrested in this case. Each of the three faces charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault. More than a dozen people were injured in the chaos, nine of them by gunshot wounds.

The hearing, which could last several days, began Monday at the Lexington County Courthouse before Judge Walton McLeod.

Price claims he pulled out his gun in the crowded mall that day because he feared for his life.

On the state’s side, 11th Circuit Attorney Rick Hubbard said the only thing the two sides can agree on during this trial is that there was indeed a shooting at the mall.

Price’s actions were not covered by the law, he said.

“If he did anything to cause this trouble, then we all go home and prepare for trial,” Hubbard said.

Price and his attorneys Todd Rutherford and Austin Nichols requested this pretrial hearing, arguing that he should be granted immunity from prosecution under the Stand Your Ground Act.

The law, which came into force in 2006, essentially regulates self-defense without the duty to retreat. It sets out limited circumstances in which the use of deadly force cannot be prosecuted.

“The intent of the legislature is that in South Carolina, you don’t have to die, you just have the right to defend yourself, and that’s all,” Rutherford said.

Price testified on the witness stand on Monday, saying he did not know what was going to happen when he saw the other two co-defendants at the mall.

“I thought I was going to die, I felt in danger,” he said.

Price claims the couple has been stalking and harassing him for years, beginning with the 2018 murder of Lower Richland High School student Amon Rice.

Price was one of more than 20 people charged in connection with Rice’s death, but a grand jury declined to indict him and the charges were dropped.

On the witness stand, Price testified that when he saw one of the co-defendants approaching him at the Columbiana Mall, he fired his weapon.

Hubbard noted that Price fired first and raised his arm, arguing that these actions were inappropriate given the crowd that had been there the day before Easter.

“You were willing to shoot even when it was crowded, right?” the lawyer asked.

“Yes, sir,” Price replied.

“But you made that decision, you were willing to carry it out, weren’t you?” Hubbard said.

“Yes, sir,” Price replied again.

“And even though a lot of those people there were children, right?”

“Yes, sir,” said Price.

Rutherford is convinced that his client acted lawfully under the circumstances, apart from the fact that he was carrying a gun.

He stated that after the shooting, Price sat in his car, handed his gun to police and willingly gave a statement to authorities.

“Over the years, much has been said in stand-your-ground cases about what happens when someone defends themselves,” Rutherford said. “It goes back to the Bible verse that says a guilty man runs when no one is pursuing him, but an innocent man stands strong like a lion. Your Honor, what you’re going to hear is that my client stood strong like a lion.”

Price had no idea that Smith and Robinson would be at the mall that day and did not create the danger, Rutherford argued.

Hubbard said this was a classic case of mutual violence, claiming each of the gunmen involved was responsible for each victim. The three men, he argued, had adopted a culture of violence.

“No man in this country has the right to shoot through a crowd of people in self-defense, especially when there are children in the crowd,” Hubbard said. “These people were his human shields and he shot through them and hit them, not the people he was shooting at.”

The defense’s first witness was a mall shopper who witnessed part of the encounter between Price and the co-defendants.

In an interview with police the day after the shooting, she said she believed Price was being “chased” by a man wearing a ski mask.

The hearing dates in this case have not yet been set.

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