A Clover man faces a felony weapons charged after police say he ignited a mortar-style firework and threw it at a police car this weekend.
The incident was one of three during the holiday celebrations, and police say they amped up enforcement for just that reason.
Montavius Lamont McCoulley, 21, was charged with illegal use of destructive device, a felony that carries a 10- to 25-year prison sentence, said Clover Police Capt. David Dover.
He's accused in one of three incidents in Clover since June 24 in which artillery-style fireworks were thrown at patrol cars - burning one and denting another, Dover said.
In one incident, an officer's hearing was temporarily damaged by a blast to an open driver's side window of a patrol car.
Aerial-shell fireworks can be "very powerful," Dover said. The shells, about an inch in diameter, are designed to be propelled into the air from a tube and explode in midair.
"From experience, when seated in a patrol car when one of these fireworks is thrown under a patrol car, it rocks the entire car from side to side," he said. "It's that powerful."
Such incidents have happened in the same Clover neighborhoods for years, Dover said, with police unable to catch and prosecute offenders. This year, extra officers were on patrol July 3 and 4 to try to curtail the fireworks attacks.
"Normally, we'd have more than three incidents this weekend," Dover said. "... This year, we allowed for extra manpower to fight it."
While McCoulley is the only person charged this weekend - tracked by officers on foot following Sunday's blast - Dover said they are looking for others.
In Sunday night's incident, an officer was patrolling the Roosevelt Community with a ride-along guest around 11 p.m. The car was stopped at Mobley Street and Zion Church Road when an officer saw the explosive device thrown in the road near the driver's side of the car, according to a Clover police report.
The ride-along witness gave the officer a description of the man he saw throw the device at the patrol vehicle, the report said. The witness saw that man standing in a driveway near the intersection.
When the officer got out of the patrol car, the suspect ran. After a brief chase, the officer found the suspect in a storage building on Mobley Street, the report said.
McCoulley was being held at the Moss Justice Center, where his bond had not been set at $5,000.
Clover Police ask that anyone with information regarding similar fireworks incidents to call 803-222-9494.
