WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – After a South Carolina mass murder suspect was arrested right here in our area, a store casher is glad to have survived a close call with him.
Five people were killed Sunday in what authorities in South Carolina are calling the “largest single murder in Spartanburg County.”
The suspect is 24-year-old James Drayton, who was arrested in Burke County after allegedly robbing the Taylor Bros. X-Press on U.S. 25 north of Waynesboro.
Authorities say he sought out the cashier at gunpoint, demanding money.
Cashier Furrica Harden had no idea when she opened the store that morning, she would be staring down the barrel of a gun, just a couple of weeks after losing her stepson to gun violence at a convenience store shooting in Augusta.
“I just noticed this guy was standing in that walkway … with a mask on. And I was like, ‘Why do you have a mask on?’ He pulled the gun,” she said.
After she handed over the money, the robber ran away. She called 911 and gave the description of a white car.
“I was very, I was like, ‘Oh, I just got robbed.’ I can’t … I couldn’t believe it. Do you understand what I’m saying? I just couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Capt. Jimmy Wylds with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office says officers spotted a white car speeding south down Highway 25 and started chasing it.
The driver wrecked the car near South Liberty and Manau streets and fled on foot.
“Once he wrecked the car, he jumped out and ran behind the CVS,” where deputies took him into custody, Wylds said.
It wasn’t until deputies ran the tags on the stolen car they discovered who they were dealing with.
“Once they made the arrest and the investigator got involved, and they called Spartanburg looking for information on the vehicle owner, that’s when they determined that he was involved in something more serious,” he said.
Something way more serious – an accused mass murderer on the run since Sunday.
Wylds said: “We had no idea. When you pull people over, you don’t know whether they’re a mass murderer or a saint.”
Wylds says Drayton was not cooperative after they arrested him, but officers from Spartanburg County came to the station and say they got a full confession for the murders.
“You’re talking about a man that had just taken five lives, so it would have been nothing for him to take the life of the lady at the store,” said Wylds.
Harden is glad to still be alive.
“God was with me that day,” she said. “I’m just so thankful.”
About the murders
Spartanburg County Sheriff Sheriff Chuck Wright said Drayton told authorities he had been using methamphetamine and hadn’t slept in four days.
In Inman, S.C., four people were found shot dead in a home on Bobo Drive and one person was injured and later passed away in surgery at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center.
The coroner has released the names of four of the individuals so far:
- 37-year-old Thomas Anderson, of Bobo Drive.
- 32-year-old Adam Morley, of Bobo Drive.
- 59-year-old Mark Hewitt, who was staying at the house at the time of the incident.
- 19-year-old Roman Christean Megael Rocha, who was staying at the home. Rocha was the victim who passed away during surgery following the incident.
Wright said he hopes the case against Drayton fits the criteria for the death penalty.
Wright said investigators had received prior complaints about “people hallucinating” at the home where Drayton, formerly of Millen, had been living two weeks before the incident.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever win the war on drugs, but that ain’t got nothing to do with the fight we’re gonna bring to you,” Wright said.
“Just because these men were using illegal drugs, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t worthy people,” he said. “If you want to argue with that, let’s go talk to their moms and dads. Let’s go talk to their sons or their children. God still loves us even though we make dumb choices.”
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