Good Guy with a Gun #223: Hartsville, SC
Between them, they had three armed robbery charges, an attempted murder charge, and a kidnapping charge. They were both out on bond. | Original incident: June 12, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
Facebook Marketplace connected a motorcycle seller with some buyers, who asked to meet at Byerly Park in Hartsville, SC. It’s a large public facility with baseball fields, a dog park, and more — the kind of place you’d feel safe meeting a stranger.
These “buyers” were Jeremiah Josey, 21, and his brother Jarivion Scott, 20. Their records make for grim reading.
Josey was out on bond and under house arrest with an ankle monitor after two separate 2022 incidents: In January, he’d been charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, and possession of a deadly weapon during a violent crime. In October — same year, different incident — he’d been charged with attempted murder, armed robbery, and possession of a deadly weapon during a violent crime.
Scott was out on bond from a December 2023 arrest involving ten charges, including armed robbery, pointing and presenting a firearm, criminal conspiracy, and drug charges.
Both of them, in other words, should have been in jail.
Fortunately, the seller came with two friends. One of the trio was legally armed, so when Josey pulled out a long gun on all three of them, that person drew and fired, hitting Josey.
Scott ran. Josey died at the hospital.
When the police later arrested Scott, he was charged with multiple counts of armed robbery, attempted murder, weapons violations, and criminal conspiracy.
Hartsville Police Chief Byron Snellgrove said his heart went out to the family — “losing a family member under any circumstance is a very devastating thing” — but was clear about the context: Both men “should have still been incarcerated while awaiting trial.”
The press release closes with a note that “it is relatively common for people to buy and sell items on the internet and meet people that they do not know to exchange those items.” I don’t blame the sellers for going to the park — it seems like a safe place — but the best place to meet up for something like this is usually a police department parking lot.
Sources
Primary
Hartsville PD put their press release up on their website. I didn’t see anything interesting in the comments.
News
WPDE 15 was the source of a billion verbatim syndicated articles about this incident. If you search on Scott and Josey’s name, there’s no shortage of stories, but there’s a real shortage of variety.
WYFF 4 gave a decent write-up that was in all essentials the same as the press release. The eight-minute video on the site contains nothing about Scott and Josey that I can find.
WLTX News 19 and WMBF are similar.
2A
Smoketales.