A woman held a knife to a Richland County Courthouse employee’s neck after passing through security and a metal detector
COLUMBIA SC March 18, 2022— A woman held a knife to a Richland County Courthouse employee’s neck March 10, after she was able to pass through security and a metal detector with the weapon, police reports show.
Richland County Sheriff’s Office, which handles security at the courthouse in downtown Columbia, did not answer questions March 14 about how the woman passed through security with a knife or if she was arrested.
The employee who was attacked on March 10 works in the clerk’s office. The employee was not seriously injured physically, Richland County Clerk of Court Jeanette McBride said in her statement thanking sheriff’s deputies and staff for their “quick responses.”
“The Richland County Courthouse holds a special place in our community, as it provides equal justice to all in civil and criminal matters,” McBride said in a statement. “We cannot and will not allow violence or the threat of violence to jeopardize the safety of our employees in the Clerk’s Office, the judges and their staffs, and the public who visits the Richland County Courthouse. We also will not allow such brazen acts of violence to affect or interfere with the justice dispensed daily within the Courthouse.”
A deputy of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department was approached at 3:40 p.m. March 10 and told a woman had assaulted someone in the courthouse. He was asked to remove the woman from the building, according to an incident report from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
The officer arrived on the fourth floor and was told the woman had a knife. The officer did not see a knife while talking to the woman, who asked for a public defender, according to the police report.
The officer left and returned with a member of the public defender’s office, which was housed on the same floor.
Upon their return another deputy was present with his TASER drawn and also stated the woman had a knife, which was closed and held behind her back, according to the police report.
The first responding officer asked the woman to hand him the knife, which she did.
It wasn’t until later that deputies learned the woman had come up behind the clerk’s office employee, who had been walking down a hallway.
A witness getting off the elevator had seen the woman with the knife, which at one point was held at the neck of the clerk’s office employee, according to the police report.
Attorney Joe McCulloch, a lawyer for the clerk’s office employee who was attacked, said the woman threatened to stab or cut his client with the knife until a member of the attorney general’s office intervened.
“My client, and many who work in the courthouse are understandably concerned about the safety of their workplace and for the safety of the public who come there to resolve disputes and do business,” McCulloch said on behalf of his client.
The clerk’s office and the sheriff’s department said equipment upgrades and changes have been recommended as result of the incident.
While the sheriff’s department provides deputies, all equipment and maintenance of the building is handled by the clerk’s office, the sheriff’s department said.
“The Sheriff’s department will continue to request security enhancements so that incidents like this may be prevented in the future,” department spokeswoman Major Maria Yturria said.
Yturria did not respond to questions seeking details about the incident or the suspect.
