2 arrested after guns, drugs found in vehicle

Two people were arrested after the vehicle they were in was found to have two loaded guns and a small amount of suspected crack cocaine, according to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office.

It happened at 3:38 a.m. Sunday, while deputies were working as uniformed security at IHOP, 2485 Broad St. Ext. They saw the males in an argument with several other people in the parking lot. The males drove off but then quickly stopped.

When the deputies walked to the sport-utility vehicle to see what was going on, they heard someone inside say, "One down, two to go (expletive) and Cherryvale." The deputies saw in plain view a chrome .380-caliber weapon with a black handle on the floor. It had a round in the chamber and seven in a clip, according to an arrest report.

The deputies ordered the males out of the vehicle, but one of them ran away and successfully eluded officers. The other two, Quinton Tremane Brown, 21, of 4650 Whitney Drive, and Marcus Trevon Branch, 17, of 1121 Alice Drive Apt. 63, were each arrested.

A search of the vehicle turned up a black 9 mm gun loaded with a round in the chamber and 14 in the clip, and a small pill bottle with 10 pieces of a white, rocklike substance believed to be crack cocaine, deputies said.

Brown and Branch were each taken to Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center.