A 51-year-old man is behind bars and a 34-year-old woman is dead leaving their two young children behind after the man allegedly shot the woman during what the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) is calling a case of domestic homicide that took place late around 11:45 p.m. Thursday on Boyd Road near Camden.
The KCSO arrested the father of their two children, LaQuincy Pollard, 51, of Cassatt, about 20 minutes later, initially on allegations of attempted murder.
Less than an hour later, around 1 a.m. Friday, deputies learned that Daysha Nichole Johnson, 34, had been pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Pollard had left Boyd Road before deputies arrived, but was spotted by a deputy on Dicey Creek Road headed towards U.S. 1. Pollard reportedly refused to stop, leading the deputy and a Camden Police Department officer on a pursuit up U.S. 1 with speeds at times of more than 120 mph.
Sheriff Lee Boan said during the chase, Pollard was talking to a friend who strongly urged him to stop. Boan said Pollard took that advice, stopping at a Bethune gas station on U.S. 1 and surrendering without incident to deputies.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Boan revealed that early in the investigation, the shooting appeared to be an ambush situation.
“She had left the house they shared two weeks earlier to stay with her mother,” Boan said. “When she got there that night, he was already there. She had a passenger, another woman, in the car. He got out, approached her with a shotgun, made a few statements, and then started firing.”
The sheriff said first responders found Johnson, alive but severely injured, in the driver’s seat of her car. He said Pollard allegedly fired multiple times, firing through the windshield and driver’s side window, but that it was unclear whether Johnson had gotten out of the car and then gotten back in before or while Pollard was firing.
“They had to use the jaws of life to get her out because at least one of the bullets had damaged the doors locking mechanism,” Boan said.
Unfortunately, he said, Johnson did not survive her injuries.
“Two young children had their lives changed forever due to a horrible decision by someone they looked to as a protector, their father,” Boan said. “These precious, innocent children lost both of their parents for no good reason. Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Pollard is being held at the Kershaw County Detention Center on one count each of murder and failure to stop for blue lights, and three counts of pointing and presenting firearms at a person. As of Monday morning, no bond had been set for the murder or failure to stop charges, but bonds of $5,000 each were placed on the pointing and presenting charges.
