The Richland County Sheriff's Department says it has charged the first person under a new county hate crime ordinance.
Jonathan Felkel, 33, was arrested Thursday and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, possession of a weapon during a violence crime and violating the county's hate crime ordinance, according to Richland County court records.
Felkel was taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center and scheduled to have a bond hearing Friday.
His first court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 26, court records show.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Friday that Felkel, who is white, is accused of firing a gun at a Black man who was jogging in the Spring Valley area the morning of July 17.
Lott said the victim was out jogging around 6 a.m. when Felkel allegedly pulled up in his car, fired a gun and made derogatory statements toward the victim.
Lott played a security video of the incident to reporters Friday.
The video shows a dark-colored BMW car pull up to a gate. A person in the driver's seat can be seen reaching for what appears to be a long gun and then firing that weapon one time out of the driver's side window.
A person yelling can be heard in the video as the driver exits through the gates.
Felkel allegedly yelled at the victim, "keep on running boy" after firing the gun.
A provided incident report said the victim said he was "shot at" and that Felkel "fired a shot into the air."
Lott said both Felkel and the victim live in Spring Valley. He said the victim and Felkel, however, did not know each other and never had an encounter before July 17.
The "suspect just saw a Black man running in the neighborhood, said, 'I'm going to shoot him,'" Lott said. "And that's what he said. That's from his statements, is that he was shooting just cause he was Black."
In a police interview with Felkel, Lott said Felkel went into "pretty great detail."
The Richland County Sheriff's Department said in a statement that Felkel made several comments that the purpose of the shooting was to "strike fear in the victim due to his race."
"So I went down there and I seen a man standing in the bushes, it was a Black man in a white shirt, just standing out there at 4 in the morning, and I saw him there and he was by himself so I was really going to do something at first and then," Felkel said, according to the sheriff's department statement.
"What do you mean by that?" the sheriff's department said an investigator responded.
"Well I was going to shoot at him. I was. I was going to shoot at him," Felkel responded, the sheriff's department said.
Lott said it's fortunate the victim was not hit by the shot.
"The suspect actually said in his interview that initially he was going to shoot him. But he didn't," Lott said. "And, again, he was shooting solely based on the race of our victim."
Violating the county's hate intimidation ordinance is a misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of a $500 fine or up 30 days in jail.
Lott said Felkel's weapons charge carries a greater penalty.
But he hopes that tacking on the hate crime charge sends a message to the community that "you can and will be arrested if you commit a crime based solely on hate."
Richland County is the first South Carolina county to pass a hate intimidation ordinance.
There are several municipalities that have passed similar ordinances.
Richland County's, passed back in June, makes it a crime to cause fear, harm or inflict damage to a person or their property based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
South Carolina is one of two states without a hate crime law.
"I don't see any progress, but fortunately Richland County Council didn't sit back and they did something very proactively and passed this ordinance," Lott said. "I see Orangeburg is doing the same thing, so hopefully other counties now will do what we're doing."
