Columbia teen now the second charged in Waffle House robbery, SC cops say

A week after a teenager was arrested for robbing a Midlands Waffle House, a second teen has also been charged with multiple crimes for participating in the March 7 armed robbery, the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office said.

On Friday, 19-year-old Jye’kwuan Dae-Sean Brown was tracked down in Columbia by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s fugitive apprehension team and was “safely arrested,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The teen is a Columbia resident, Kershaw County court records show.

Brown was charged with three counts of kidnapping in addition to armed robbery with a deadly weapon, possession of a weapon during violent crime, safe cracking and criminal conspiracy, jail records show.

His bail was set at a combined $90,000 on three of the charges, but Brown remains behind bars at the Kershaw County Detention Center after bond was denied on the armed robbery and multiple kidnapping charges, according to jail records.

Information about how SLED located Brown was not available. He’s scheduled to return to court again May 16, judicial records show.

Brown joins Elgin resident Jalon Bradley at the jail after the fellow 19-year-old was arrested on the same charges March 16, the sheriff’s office said. Bradley was tracked down by SLED in Sumter County, according to the sheriff’s office.

On March 7, both Brown and Bradley were involved in robbing the Waffle House on U.S. 601 in Lugoff, the sheriff’s office said.

No injuries were reported.

The sheriff’s office said the teens were not the only people involved in the armed robbery.

“We expect more charges and more arrests in our ongoing investigation,” Sheriff Lee Boan said in the release.

There was no word about how many other people were involved, their identities, or potential charges they could be facing.

Along with SLED and the sheriff’s office, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, Sumter County Sheriff’s Office and the Sumter Police Department have assisted in the investigation.

At the time of the armed robbery, Brown was out on bond from a July 2, 2022, arrest, Richland County court records show. Brown is facing pending drug possession and weapons charges in addition to one count of failure to stop for a blue light, according to Richland County court records.