STATE: Should Statehouse’s Tillman statue include information about massacre? A5 SPORTS
U.S.’ s Zach Johnson wins British Open in 4-hole playoff B1 TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015
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Deadly crash details released Report: F-16 pilot was warned of small plane before collision COLUMBIA (AP) — A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report finds the pilot of an F-16C fighter jet from Shaw Air Force Base was warned by air traffic control of the presence of a small plane only seconds before a midair collision over rural South Carolina. The July 7 collision claimed the
lives of two men on the small plane. The jet pilot parachuted to safety. The report says an air traffic controller told the fighter pilot at 18 seconds past 11 a.m. that day that a Cessna was about two miles away. The pilot responded that he was looking for the small plane. About 36 seconds later, the control-
ler lost the Cessna on radar. The fighter continued flying for about three minutes before the pilot ejected, the report said. The Cessna’s pilot, 30-year-old Joe Johnson, and his father, 68-year-old Mike Johnson, both of Pinopolis, were killed in the crash. Their bodies were recovered from the waters
of Cooper River. The collision happened in fair weather just after the single-engine Cessna, which was headed to Myrtle Beach, had taken off from the Berkeley County Airport near Moncks Corner. The jet’s pilot, Air Force Maj. Aaron
SEE CRASH, PAGE A3
Huckabee: America has a ‘sin’ problem Rape kit testing queries emerge
Law enforcement explains why some remain untested BY COLLYN TAYLOR intern@theitem.com
event by the church’s pastor, the Rev. Leon Winn, who met him at a campaign event a few months earlier. Winn ran for the District 36 state Senate seat as a Republican in the 2012 election. He also ran on the Republican ticket for U.S. Congress in 2014. “I was really impressed with a speech he gave in Columbia and decided to invite
After data was released recently about a significant amount of untested rape kits collecting dust in police evidence lockers, questions are emerging about the process of testing evidence in rape cases. According to the study, which was part of an open-records campaign covering more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies, at least 70,000 rape kits nationwide remain untested. Rape kits are collections of the rapist’s DNA that was left on the victim’s body after the attack. The kits are sent to local law enforcement after collection. That’s no different in South Carolina, as The Greenville News reported 205 untested kits at the county’s sheriff’s office and 45 untested at Greenville Police Department. Also reported were a combined 545 untested kits among the City of Columbia and Lexington and Charleston counties. In Sumter, both Sumter Police Department and Sumter County Sheriff’s Office send the rape kits they receive to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for testing. Roughly 11 percent of all rape kits collected at Sumter
SEE HUCKABEE, PAGE A3
SEE RAPE KITS, PAGE A7
KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY / THE SUMTER ITEM
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee addresses Sunday’s congregation at Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Manning. Behind Huckabee sits the church’s pastor, the Rev. Leon Winn. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was invited by Winn to attend the church’s Day of Unity event.
Presidential hopeful talks race, God with Clarendon church BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY konstantin@theitem.com Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee emphasized the U.S. does not have a “skin” problem but rather a “sin” problem during his speech at the Day of Unity event at Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Manning on Sunday.
“It’s not a conversation we need about race, it’s a conversion we need to be reconciled to God,” he said. “Everything wrong in America today is because people have decided that they know more than God does.” About 350 people were in attendance, including church and community members, as well as members of Clarendon and Sumter Republican parties. Huckabee was invited to come to the
Your donations help Sumterites get back on their feet BY COLLYN TAYLOR intern@theitem.com Last winter, the folks at Sumter United Ministries were introduced to a man who didn’t have a place to sleep and was making his bed on church steps. What they didn’t know was
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how much they could help him. As they usually do, workers at Sumter United Ministries took him to their Emergency Shelter to put a roof over his head and
give him a warm place to sleep. Stay at the shelter is temporary, but temporary is a relative term. The man stayed at the shelter until he was able to get out on his own, volunteering there from the start. He worked hard and eventu-
DEATHS, B4 Bobby L. Barnes Sarah Jane C. Gardner Louis E. Singleton Abraham Pendergrass Dennis Lee Elmore Jr.
Samuel Greene Robert D. Jones Jr. Clara Mae Ceasar Johnny Ross Louise S. Grant
ally got on his feet and now has two good jobs, a savings account and an apartment, and he joined the church where he was found sleeping. He went from sleeping on the cold concrete to having steady sources of income and a place of his own. But he doesn’t forget where
he came from. Just last week he stopped by Sumter United Ministries to visit. He still volunteers there some, when he can find time in between work, and visits people in nursing homes with his new church.
SEE CARING, PAGE A7
WEATHER, A10
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Expect a thunderstorm or two today and tonight HIGH 99, LOW 76
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