Man Arrested in Vandalization of 7-Year-Old Murder Victim's Grave
Police in Columbia, South Carolina, have arrested a man they say is responsible for desecrating the grave of a murdered child earlier this year.
A seven-year-old named Knowledge Sims was murdered in his home last April as he played the popular video game “Fortnite.” William Hilton, an investigator in the shooting death of the boy, described the events that led to Sims’ death to WACH-TV of Columbia last year.
“He comes running into the room and says ‘Momma they shot me,” said the investigator. “And the horrific look on her face as she’s talking to me, like who wants their child to come in the room and say ‘they shot me.”
No arrests have been made in Sims’ shooting death. To make the situation more distressing for his family, someone vandalized his grave on May 20 of this year.
WACH reported Sims’ family went to visit their little boy’s gravesite several months ago only to find it had been ransacked and desecrated.
“When we pulled up, it was a mess out here. Lights were broken, all types of stuff, but I just don’t understand. How do y’all come up and mess up a seven-year-old’s grave? I don’t see how that’s possible in the world,” said Sims’ stepfather, a man named David Liles.
Liles, upset at what the family found at the cemetery, lamented the lack of closure regarding the boy’s murder.
“We still don’t got no information about what’s going on about the situation, about him gone. We still don’t got no information about that situation and we deal with that every day. For us to come out here and see that? That’s a slap in the face,” Liles told the outlet.
“We still treat him like he here, he with us every day. I walk around with him every day on me, at least one of them, I walk around with him every day on me,” he said.
Liles then made a public plea to the person responsible for the gravesite vandalism.
“Just turn yourself in, man, and face the music. You took a seven-year-old man, something that you can never replace. You took something that you can never back,” he said.
While Sims’ killer has not been found, police announced this week that they arrested a suspect regarding the vandalization of Sims’ grave.
A gang task force arrested a man named Jurnee McDaniel, 19, the Columbia Police Department said.
“#ColumbiaPDSC, @RCSD & the Midlands Gang Task Force have arrested 19 y/o suspect Jurnee McDaniel in connection w/the desecration of murder victim Knowledge Sims’ grave on Buckner Rd. & causing approx. $200 in damages. Sims was shot & killed in 2020 at his Tarragon Rd. home,” the department tweeted.
#ColumbiaPDSC, @RCSD & the Midlands Gang Task Force have arrested 19 y/o suspect Jurnee McDaniel in connection w/the desecration of murder victim Knowledge Sims’ grave on Buckner Rd. & causing approx. $200 in damages. Sims was shot & killed in 2020 at his Tarragon Rd. home. pic.twitter.com/xPoe8M07Ic
— Columbia Police Dept (@ColumbiaPDSC) July 2, 2021
While the grieving family is still seeking some semblance of closure about the death of their little boy, they now have a few questions answered about who might be responsible for vandalizing his final resting place.
Officers, meanwhile, are still working hard to bring Sims’ killer to justice.
The department has asked anyone with knowledge of the shooting to call the city’s Crimestoppers hotline at 1-888-CRIME-SC.
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