Security guard shot to death in Richland County

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A security guard at a Columbia-area nightclub has been shot and killed.

It’s the second consecutive weekend a nightclub security guard has been killed in Richland County.

Coroner Gary Watts says 40-year-old Jimmy Moti of West Columbia was shot in the abdomen and died during surgery early Sunday at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital.

The shooting happened shortly before midnight Saturday. A sheriff’s spokeswoman says Moti had refused to let three men go inside after he questioned the authenticity of one man’s identification. No arrests have been made.

Last weekend, 25-year-old security guard Gawayne A. Franklin was shot in the head and killed at another nightclub. That shooting happened after Franklin argued with a club patron.

Twenty-two-year-old James Kevin Bethel Jr. of Columbia has been charged with murder in Franklin’s death.