INMAN, SC — A suspect has been arrested after four people were found dead and another one died at the hospital after a shooting at a South Carolina house Sunday night.
According to a news release from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to a house just before 8 p.m. Sunday in Inman, South Carolina for a “death call.” When deputies arrived on the scene, they found four victims dead and another who was taken to the hospital where they later died.
WHNS reported that the four people who were found dead were all men.
SCSO later identified four of the victims as Thomas Ellis Anderson, 37; Adam Daniel Morley, 32; Mark Allen Hewitt, 59; and Roman Christean Megael Rocha, 19. The fifth victim is pending next-of-kin notification. SCSO said that all of them were living at the house where the shooting happened.
The suspect fled the house in a car that was registered to a family member of one of the victims, according to SCSO. Deputies conducted a welfare check on the owner of the car to see if they knew about it. SCSO said investigators located the suspect’s belongings inside of the house.
According to SCSO, the suspect was later identified as James Douglas Drayton, 24. Investigators filed four arrest warrants for Drayton. Investigators learned that he had been staying at the house for about two weeks prior to the shooting.
>> 4 people found dead, 1 died at hospital after shooting at South Carolina home
According to WRDW, the Burke County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia arrested Drayton, after a robbery at a Taylor Bros. X-Press north of Waynesboro, Georgia. The robbery happened around 4:30 a.m. on Monday, according to WRDW.
Drayton had allegedly entered the store, “sought out of the clerk at gunpoint” and took the clerk to the register, demanding money. He fled the scene shortly after. BCSO deputies and Waynesboro Police Department located his car and started to chase him. Drayton allegedly crashed the car and ran. He was caught by law enforcement jumping a fence, according to WRDW.
During their investigation, it was learned that Drayton was wanted for the murder of five people in South Carolina, according to BCSO.
“Investigators from the Spartanburg Sheriff’s Office traveled to our county where they interviewed Drayton and received a full confession to the mass murder of the 5 individuals in Inman, SC,” BCSO said in a news release.
SCSO said Drayton was allegedly able to provide investigators with specific information about the scene, including the locations of the victims.
SCSO is working on extraditing Drayton from Georgia back to South Carolina. He has so far been charged with four counts of homicide and four counts of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime. SCSO said once the fifth family is notified about the death, additional charges will be filed.
No further information has been released.
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