‘I need help – I’ve been shot’: Stray bullet shakes Aiken neighborhood
AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - “I need help – I’ve been shot,” a customer cried when she ran back into an Aiken pet hospital after being hit by a bullet in the parking lot.
Those are among the details revealed in a newly released police report on Tuesday’s shooting outside the Hitchcock Animal Hospital at Trail Ridge Road and Hitchcock Parkway.
Her injuries weren’t life-threatening, but the incident left police puzzled and looking for a car that may be connected to the shooting.
MORE CRIME COVERAGE FROM WRDW:
- Grovetown day-care worker charged with simple battery
- Suspect wanted in armed robbery at Circle K on Gordon Highway
- 27-year-old aggravated stalking suspect wanted in Grovetown
- 22-year-old accused in shooting at motel on Gordon Highway
The drama unfolded just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday after a 31-year-old woman left the vet clinic with her dog.
She was putting her dog in her car when witnesses heard four to seven gunshots back to back.
The victim ran back inside, screaming.
The clinic’s employees locked the doors and started helping the victim.
“We were glad that we could provide the basic first aid to her to stop the bleeding and keep her calm and stable until the ambulance arrived and they could take over and get her to the hospital,” said Greg Baughman, husband of the lead veterinarian.
Employees at a nearby endodontics clinic also heard the gunshots. They locked the doors and stayed inside.
When officers arrived, they found a trail of blood in the parking lot, leading from the victim’s car to the front door of the pet hospital.
The car was damaged, with police finding a small piece of plastic with a bullet impact inside a bumper. The windows of another car were hit, strewing glass inside.
Police started reviewing security video and soon asked the public to be on the lookout for this white car:
Anyone with information is urged to the Aiken Department of Public Safety.
The staff was OK but shaken at the pet hospital near Houndslake Country Club.
When Baughman learned of it, the incident left him “just trying to figure out how this could happen or what would cause it,” he said.
“This neighborhood’s a pretty quiet, nice area,” he said.
He said witnesses thought the gunfire came from a dispute in a parking lot nearby, with a stray bullet hitting the victim.
While police have nothing further to say for now, Baughman shared his thoughts.
“Everything that we could piece together – it seemed like it was totally random, just some people having an argument maybe,” he said.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before, and I hope to God nothing like this will ever happen again.”
A string of shootings across the CSRA
The Aiken shooting was at least the fifth over three days in the CSRA. The other shootings include:
- One person was killed and another was injured in a shooting Monday night in Millen – one of two fatal shootings within 24 hours in the CSRA.
- A 24-year-old man died after a shooting late Sunday in the 300 block of Williamsburg Drive in Augusta, the Benson Estates apartment complex.
- One person was injured in a shooting Sunday afternoon at a Circle K at Peach Orchard and Tobacco roads in Augusta. It happened after an argument escalated, according to authorities.
- Early Sunday, a shooting was reported in the 700 block of Matthews Road in Washington County. Plenty of blood was found at the home where the victim went, but he couldn’t be located.
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
