3rd burglary suspect arrested without incident

By JASON WERMERS
Item Staff Writer
jwermers@theitem.com

The third suspect in a Sumter County burglary has been arrested at his home without incident.

Sheriff’s Capt. James Turner said officers took Robert Lee Brunson Jr., 18, into custody at 221 Fagan St., shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday. Brunson was charged with first-degree burglary and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

He was taken to Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center, and bond had not been set Tuesday afternoon.

Two boys, ages 15 and 16, were 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 Gable-area home in the 5700 block of East Brewington Road shortly before noon Sunday. The resident said he saw three males walk out of his home through the carport door as he pulled into his driveway at about 11:45 a.m.

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

Deputies with the Sumter and Clarendon county sheriff’s offices saw the teens after a short search of the woods, but the boys ran farther into the trees. When deputies brought a police dog, the teens surrendered, according to an arrest report.

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

Sumter County paramedics removed the bullet and took the teen to the emergency room at Tuomey Regional Medical Center. He and the 16-year-old were later 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.

Contact Staff Writer Jason Wermers at jwermers@theitem.com or (803) 774-1295.