The mother of an 18-year-old man shot early Wednesday morning at a home on Pearson Road in Sumter near the Clarendon-Sumter line said they knew the shooter.
Charles Gary Singletary III, 18, was arrested at a home on Blackberry Lane in Pinewood late Wednesday morning and charged with a count each of murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault. During the incident at the Pearson Road home, 18-year-old Joshua Brown died from a gunshot wound to the head. Kyle Timothy Hodge also suffered a gunshot wound to the head, according to his mother, Margaret Charles, who was injured herself during the incident, receiving a deep laceration to her left ear.
"I woke up to someone making noise, and I got up to see what was going on," Margaret Charles said. "There was blood all over the place, and I see my son, Kyle, and this boy fighting."
Charles said her son and Singletary have known each other since kindergarten. Hodge told his mother - he is in stable condition and able to talk while recovering at Palmetto Health Richland - that he awoke to find Singletary holding a gun to his temple. The bullet went through the man's throat, but did not exit.
"The doctors said that if it had been a few hairs different, we'd have a completely worse situation," Charles said. "I'd have never thought (Singletary) would've done something like this. We don't know what possessed him to do this."
Sumter County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Hampton Gardner said Wednesday that the incident is still under investigation.
"We are unsure of any motive at this time," he said.
