Mother of slain SC teen urges suspects to turn themselves in

NaJeer Buggs would have been 15 next week if he hadn’t been gunned down while walking home on Grand Street in Columbia in July. His mother visited the place where his body was found Tuesday evening.

“I came up here (from Orangeburg) thinking we could get a better start on life,” Lawanda Buggs said during a press conference at the site. “If I would have had any idea I would come up here and lose my son seven months later, I would never have come.”

The teen was walking home July 3 with his cousin after playing basketball at a nearby park. Around the 4100 block of Grand Street, not far from Colonial Drive in North Columbia, they encountered one or more suspects in a light-colored sedan. The occupants fired shots, striking Buggs in the upper body. He was pronounced dead later at a local hospital.

Police are investigating, trying to determine if there are any more witnesses to the shooting, according to Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook. Buggs and his cousin were the intended targets of the shooting, Holbrook said shortly after the incident happened.

Jack Logan, founder of the Greenville-based Put Down the Guns Now Young People Organization, said the police need to be doing more to find the suspect or suspects. “Those names, victims of crime, should stand out – especially unsolved crimes,” Logan said. “Every police officer in this city and Richland County should know NaJeer Buggs’ name.”

Logan urged anyone with information to contact the police, and the teen’s mother said she wished the killer would do the right thing and get in touch with investigators. She said she doesn’t feel safe allowing her other children, ages 10 to 20, to travel alone anymore.

“You’ve got this family in pain,” she said.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Mother of slain SC teen urges suspects to turn themselves in."