Wedding Celebration In Shem Creek Ends With Three Attempted Murder Arrests


What was supposed to be a fun night at a wedding celebration ended with a huge brawl, three arrests, and attempted murder charges. Shem Creek, South Carolina, is a beautiful location just outside of the beloved Charleston, South Carolina. Justin McKeithan, 35, of Raleigh and his girlfriend had been at Red’s Ice House celebrating the marriage of their friends. Around 1:35 a.m. the two of them were in the parking lot headed to their car, when McKeithan was attacked from behind, according to Live 5 News.

Two men, 41-year-old Leo Garcia of Wedgefield and 34-year-old Nathan Rivers of Sumter, reportedly jumped McKeithan, and he never saw it coming. McKeithan pulled out his pocket knife and began using it to defend himself against his attackers, according to WIS-TV.

The Post and Courier reports, “Investigators from the Mount Pleasant Police Department struggled to sort out the bloody melee that involved uncooperative witnesses and the three suspects from out of town.”

Police revealed that both attackers sustained non life-threatening injuries. Garcia received a puncture wound to his left side, and his left ear was partially severed. Rivers suffered a deep laceration to his right arm.

Unfortunately, an innocent bystander decided to become a Good Samaritan while he was talking with friends in the parking lot when he heard McKeithan yelling.

Kurt Kohler, a 28-year-old school teacher from Charleston, tells the Post and Courier that he saw the two men on top of McKeithan, and felt like he needed to help him.

“I ran to see what was happening, and I saw one guy getting mugged. He was on his back with two guys on top of him.”

As Kohler struggled to pull the two attackers off McKeithan, he didn’t realize that all three men had knives. Suddenly, Kohler felt a sharp pain, and looked down to see blood gushing from his arm as the bones were completely exposed. Kohler had been slashed with an incredibly sharp blade, and sustained a one-inch-deep gash all the way down his forearm to his knuckles. That is when he decided to run for safety, as he told Post and Courier.

“I was just trying to save someone, but it kind of backfired.”

Police Inspector Chip Googe reports that a bouncer then tackled McKeithan and kicked the knife from his hand. Police later found a second knife.

The police report shows while all three men, Rivers, Garcia, and McKeithan, were all stabbing each other, it was not determined who caused what wounds. However, they were all three arrested for Kohler’s stabbing.

McKeithan is a former felon who was previously sentenced to 35 and 51 months in prison “after stabbing his former girlfriend’s boyfriend in the chest four years ago in North Carolina,” as per Post and Courier. The man survived and McKeithan has been out of prison since March 2013.

Garcia, Rivers, and McKeithan were all three charged with attempted murder. Both Garcia and Rivers are being held at the Charleston County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond, while McKeithan was released on a $200,000 bond, as reported by Live 5 News.

Kohler had surgery for the ripped tendsons in his wrists. Doctors are confident he will regain full use of his arm and hand.

[Photo Credit: CCSO.CharlestonCounty.org, City-Data.com]

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