Aiyden and Avery Martin
Police arrest man suspected of killing 2 children at North Charleston apartment
By Angie Jackson
The Post and Courier
Jordan Cooper assumed the worst when he spotted a helicopter circling overhead and at least a dozen cop cars parked outside his North Charleston apartment complex Monday afternoon.
Investigators were mum at first about what drew them to Jamison Park apartments on Greenridge Road off Rivers Avenue. Cooper, who worked as a pastor in Indiana and said he is familiar with emergency response, feared that kids were involved.
Later, two ambulances were escorted out by a police cruiser without their lights on, offering another grim clue to what police would later confirm: two children had been killed.
“You put two and two together,” Cooper said. “It’s terrible.”
Cooper’s observations came as a helicopter circled overhead and officers combed the area for the homicide suspect, 26-year-old Raashid Jaamal White. Officers showed citizens his photo as they looked for him.
Just before sunset and about five hours after the search began, police arrested White several roads away on South Antler Drive.
White is charged with two counts of murder. A bond hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, according to Spencer Pryor, spokesman for the North Charleston Police Department.
Pryor said officers were dispatched to the complex shortly after 3 p.m. by a person who said there were children trapped inside an apartment with a man suffering from mental health issues. The caller had been attacked and locked out of the apartment, police said.
Officers found two children inside the apartment "suffering injuries from an attack," Pryor said.
The Charleston County Coroner’s Office has not yet identified the children. Police have not specified how they died or said how the victims are connected to White.
The children's deaths brought the homicide count in North Charleston to 25 killings so far this year. There have been 45 homicides in the tri-county area.
Investigators concentrated their work to the second floor of an apartment building. Chaplains assisted two groups of people who stood outside and talked among themselves.
Around 8:15 p.m., several police and emergency vehicles sped off from the complex. People standing in front of the apartment building cheered and yelled, "They got him!"
Police pulled down the crime scene tape to allow several residents to return to their apartments.
On South Antler Drive, where White was arrested, police bagged a drawstring backpack and other evidence.
During the search for White, resident Annette Sellers sat in front of the leasing office with friends. She’s lived at Jamison Park for about three years and was shocked to hear two children were killed.
Sellers feels safe at the complex. She said she lives among families, members of the military and elderly residents.
“Nothing like this happens here,” she said.
Mina Corpuz and Brooks Brunson contributed to this report.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/p...47aecd7ad.html
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