RCSD: Two arrested for shooting tow truck driver in January
COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott held a press conference Tuesday to address January shooting that injured a tow truck driver. Sheriff Lott says 32-year-old Sirdonovan Paull and 27-year-old Jahleel Simmons have been arrested in connection with the shooting on Shop Road. They are each charged with armed robbery and attempted murder.
On January 2, investigators say a tow truck driver was parked off the 1400 block of Shop Road, checking a parking lot for unlawfully parked vehicles, when two men approached him. Authorities say they robbed him and shot him at least six times before fleeing the scene. Officials say the tow truck driver was able to get back in his truck and drive to South Beltline Boulevard deputies found him and began rendering aid.
The tow truck driver survived the shooting and spoke at the press conference Tuesday, thankful to be alive.
“The good man upstairs was on my side,” said the tow truck driver before thanking authorities who helped solve the crime.
Sheriff Lott says the department’s investigation into this shooting led them to learn of more crimes committed by Paull and Simmons throughout South Carolina. The sheriff says they committed crimes in the Charleston area before coming up to Columbia. Authorities say Simmons was already detained for a murder charge from an unrelated shooting in December 2021 in Goose Creek.
“These suspects terrorized multiple communities,” Sheriff Lott said. “Simmons murdered a robbery victim and less than two weeks later, robbed and shot someone else. Our communities are safer with him locked up and we need to make sure it stays that way.”
According to deputies, Paull was arrested on February 12 in Myrtle Beach before being transferred to Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. Officials say Simmons was booked at the Berkley County Detention Center for the other incident, and he is still there currently.
