Armed robbery suspect shot by Sumter Police Department officer

An armed robbery suspect was shot by a Sumter Police Department officer on Saturday night after he tried to flee when officers spotted his vehicle on Broad Street.

Christopher Jermaine Cummings, 35, tried to run away after crashing into a parked vehicle in the 100 block of Highland Avenue at Broad Street, according to Tonyia McGirt, public information officer for the police department.

“The suspect was transported to Palmetto Health Tuomey by EMS, where he was treated for a non-life-threatening injury and released,” she said.

The victim of the reported armed robbery provided a description of a suspect and vehicle, including the license tag, to law enforcement about 8 p.m., claiming the man was armed with a semi-automatic handgun when the incident occurred outside at the back of a motel in the 4000 block of Broad Street, across from Shaw Air Force Base.

Police department officers saw a vehicle that matched the description given by the victim at a business near Broad Street and Highland Avenue.

McGirt said officers attempted to contact the suspect, but he reportedly failed to stop for their blue lights and sirens.

The crash occurred almost six miles east on Broad Street of where the alleged armed robbery occurred and about a mile from Cummings’ house on Susie Rembert Street.

There is dash cam and body cam video footage from the incident, according to SLED, which investigates officer-involved shootings at the request of the agency involved.

“Information gathered in the SLED investigations in Sumter … County will be summarized in case file reports and be submitted to prosecutors in the Third Circuit Solicitor’s Office,” SLED said in a released statement.

McGirt said Police Chief Russell Roark and Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis both requested the State Law Enforcement Division investigate these incidents.

Cummings was transported to Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center. His charges include failure to stop for blue lights and siren, second offense, violation of the Habitual Offender Act, driving under suspension, third offense, and armed robbery.

The incident, according to SLED, marked the 44th officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2017 and the first this year involving an officer from the Sumter Police Department.

In 2016, there were 41 officer-involved shootings in South Carolina, including two involving the Sumter Police Department.