3rd burglary suspect arrested without incident

By JASON WERMERS
Item Staff Writer
jwermers@theitem.com

The third suspect in a Sumter County burglary was arrested Tuesday morning at his home without incident by the sheriff's office.

Capt. James Turner said officers took Robert Lee Brunson Jr., 18, into custody after arriving at his home, 221 Fagan St., shortly after 9 a.m. Brunson was being interviewed at the Law Enforcement Center but was expected to be taken to Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center later today and formally charged with burglary.

Two males, ages 15 and 16, were each arrested Sunday within 40 minutes of the burglary after a brief search in the woods off East Brewington Road near the Clarendon County line.

The 15-year-old had been shot in the leg, apparently after a loaded .357-caliber handgun accidentally fired while one of the suspects was giving the weapon to another one, Turner said.

Officers arrived at the home in the 5700 block of East Brewington Road in the Gable area shortly before noon Sunday. The resident reported that when he pulled into his driveway about 11:45 a.m., he saw three males walk out of his home through the carport door.

When they saw him, they ran behind the home. Then one of them, later identified as Brunson, came back and went into a black Chevrolet Cavalier, drove west on East Brewington and turned left on Relief Road before the victim lost sight of him. The other two ran off into the woods behind the home, the sheriff's office said.

Several officers with the Sumter and Clarendon county sheriff's offices arrived and searched the woods for a short time and saw the teens, but they ran farther into the woods. When sheriff's officers brought a K9 police dog, the teens surrendered, according to an arrest report.

That was when officers discovered the 15-year-old had been shot. The bullet was lodged in his foot after entering his calf, an arrest report says.

Sumter County Emergency Medical Services paramedics removed the bullet and took the teen to the emergency room at Tuomey Regional Medical Center. After he was treated, he and the 16-year-old were taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Columbia on burglary charges.

Officers recovered the handgun in the woods Monday morning, Turner said. Besides that weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun and a laptop computer were stolen from the home, the victim told the sheriff's office.