Suspect in police death carried weapons in earlier arrests

The man charged with shooting a police officer to death with a stolen gun at a South Carolina mall was carrying multiple weapons during two earlier arrests, police records show.

In August, Columbia police say 34-year-old Jarvis Hall was arrested for fleeing officers. They say he had a loaded 9-mm handgun, 40 rounds of ammunition and a 6-inch knife. During a 2004 arrest involving a prostitution charge, police say Hall had a 9-mm handgun, ammunition and a butcher knife.

Hall is charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime in the shooting Wednesday of Forest Acres Police officer Gregory Alia, a seven-year veteran of his small police force, a new father and a lifelong resident of the Columbia area.

Arrest warrants say Alia was shot with a stolen .40 caliber handgun and Hall also had a knife in his possession.

On Thursday, Hall relinquished his right to his first court appearance.

During a brief hearing at the Richland County Detention Center, Magistrate Judge Michelle Branch-Howard told public defender Taylor Bell that she would not set bond for his client.

A circuit judge is expected to determine the 34-year-old Hall’s bond at a later date. Hall, a resident of Eastover, remains in the detention center.

Bell declined to comment on his client’s decision.

Also on Thursday, the State Law Enforcement Division announced there is no body camera or dashboard camera footage of the incident which started when Alia was investigating a report of a suspicious person at the Richland Mall.

The shopping center is in Forest Acres, a small residential community surrounded by the city of Columbia.

The 32-year-old Forest Acres officer was responding to a call just before 8 a.m. about a suspicious individual in the mall parking lot near a small bank outlet.

Officials said that after Alia attempted to speak with the suspect, the man fled into the mall and officers pursued him.

Forest Acres Police Chief Gene Sealy said Alia struggled with the suspect and was shot.

Hall was arrested immediately.

Alia died after being taken to a local hospital from the mall.

Early Thursday morning, Alia’s wife Kassy spoke with reporters in front of a make-shift memorial that sprang up at the Forest Acres police headquarters. Flowers and bereavement notes lie around the officer’s patrol car.

Wearing one of her husband’s blue uniform shirts and cradling their 6-month-old son Sal, Alia told reporters that she and her husband’s parents were grateful for the outpouring of community support.

“He loved his work. He was committed to his job,” Alia told WLTX-TV about her husband. “He was a selfless servant.”

“My husband would be so proud of how wonderful people are,” Alia said.

Sealy said Hall had a knife as well as the gun, which an arrest warrant said was stolen in neighboring Lexington County in early September.

Records show Hall was arrested in August for failure to stop for a Columbia police officer. It was not clear why he was not in jail at the time of the shooting; a 30-day sentence he had received wasn’t due to be completed until Oct. 16.

Members of Alia’s fraternity at the University of South Carolina, Phi Sigma Kappa, scheduled a vigil in his honor Thursday evening on the USC campus.

The officer’s funeral is set for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Columbia.

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Associated Press Writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this report.

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