A  Newberry  County  taxicab driver was shot and critically wounded Monday night after picking up a fare. Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster says investigators are looking for 2 black males that called In the fare shortly before the cab driver disappeared.

“At approximately 11 pm last night (Monday night) C & C Commute got a call to pick up a fare on Smith Road near Newberry Academy. The driver picked up two black males there close to Newberry Academy. Apparently they told him that they wanted to go to the Belfast Road which was documented on his trip log.”

The driver was found by deputies in ditch. He was shot twice. The taxi was later found  abandoned seven  miles  away.   The driver is currently in Columbia’s Palmetto Health Richland Hospital in critical condition. His identity has not been released.

Sheriff Foster says luckily a deputy that was in the area  helping clear debris from the storm last night remembered seeing the taxicab in the area earlier that evening. “He went back to the area where he had previously seen the taxi and rode around a bit and eventually found the taxi driver in a ditch wounded. Other responding deputies found the taxi seven miles away abandoned on the Belfast Road near Belmont Church Road.
       
Foster says when the driver was discovered by authorities, he was in no condition to give any information concerning his attack or attackers. “The individual that was wounded was shot at least twice was mina-vac-ed to Richland Memorial Hospital. His condition as of this (Tuesday) morning is critical. He was not able at the time to provide us with any information regarding the nature of the suspects because of the nature of his wounds.”

A South Carolina woman is behind bars after police arrested her for stealing purses in churches.

Charleston police arrested Felita Singletary on Sunday after she was caught stealing a purse from an area church. However, this wasn’t the first time Singletary was caught in the act. The Associated Press reports she was accused of stealing purses from Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia in June.

Officers say Singletary steals the purses to use bank cards, and make fraudulent, illegal purchases. She’s charged with larceny, financial transaction card fraud, and simple possession of marijuana.

Currently, Singletary is being held in the Charleston County Jail.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against two men charged with killing a Colleton County deputy last year as he was investigating a burglary call. Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone announced Monday that 19-year-old Jacoby Fields and 20-year-old Travis Harris deserve to executed if they care convicted because they killed a law officer while they were committing another felony. fields and Harris are each charged with murder along with four counts of burglary. according to authorities, 39-year-old Colleton County sheriff’s deputy Dennis Compton was shot in the abdomen early last August 6 as he checked a burglar alarm near the town of Smoaks.

Fields told a reporter from the Charleston “Post and Courier” newspaper last year that he was in the wrong place, didn’t pull the trigger, and was sorry the deputy was killed. Harris had no prior criminal record.