Six illegal immigrants have been arrested in connection with the murder of a woman in Lancaster County, South Carolina.
According to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a call about a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road and discovered 40-year-old Larisha Thompson dead from a gunshot wound. Investigators linked the fatal shooting to a firearm used in a prior burglary.
A SWAT team executed a search warrant on 21-year-old Asael Torres-Chirinos after he was found to be present at both crime scenes. He was arrested and found in possession of the handgun believed to have been used in both the burglary and the shooting. Investigators later identified five additional suspects between the ages of 13 and 21 who were allegedly involved in both incidents.
According to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, federal immigration authorities confirmed that all six suspects are in the United States illegally.
Per The Herald, also arrested were Jarby Ardon Ramos-Odari, 18, and Jeyson Sobied Pineda-Salgado, 17, and three teenagers, ages 13, 14, and 15. Prosecutors want to try the three teens on murder charges as adults alongside the other three co-defendants.
Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office deputy Justin Weiland testified during a hearing in May that five of the group members wrote in a text chain after the killing phrases such as “mission fail” and “this is just the beginning.” He said that the group wanted to rob a car on a rural road, and surrounded Thompson when she drove down the road. The group then allegedly shot her to death.
“Each is charged in arrest warrants with Murder, Attempted Armed Robbery, and Burglary Second Degree,” said Doug Barfield, attorney for the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, according to The National News Desk. “Torres-Chirinos is believed to have fired the pistol during both incidents. He is also charged with two counts of Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Violent Crime and one count of Possession of a Firearm by an Unlawful Alien.”
Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile also condemned the violence, detailing the crimes and saying that the shooting “defies any sense of decency in a civilized society.”
“Ms. Thompson was going about her business on a Friday night, not bothering anyone. All of a sudden these six men and boys, out to get something for nothing from someone they did not know and had no business bothering, pulled alongside her car, and Torres-Chirinos opened fire, killing Ms. Thompson,” he said. “There’s no place in our society for acts like this or the people who commit them, and my hope is these six are never again among us.”