 Good afternoon. The purpose of the press conference today is to discuss the latest developments surrounding this year of bugs 2015 murder investigation. I'm joined today by this year's mother, the one of bugs in her sister and family. And I certainly know how important they have been to you over these last several years, providing some incredible support during the days that followed this year's tragic death. I'm also joined by members of an investigative investigative team that worked tirelessly on this. And I'm going to talk about that team a little a little bit later. But investigator Hilton was the lead in the homicide. You've got the Midlands Gang Task Force represented up here. Of course, that's comprised of multiple agencies. Richland County Sheriff's Department in the Columbia Police Department lead that effort. Um, Captain Goggins is in the back. Uh, I don't know why, but I appreciate you being here events and the work that the task force did on this. Um, our ATF partners in this investigation were just absolutely incredible. And up here today with me is acting ASAC Chad Nesbitt with ATF and Don Berlin, who also chose to stay in the back as was instrumental. He works very closely with our gang investigators. Of course, we have tremendous help from state law enforcement division lab. Um, they were instrumental in connecting some dots on on this case and as well as the analyst with the Richland County Sheriff's Department and Detective Sergeant Marlowe McCann with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. So it's days like this that absolutely remind me of why we do this job. I can't explain to you all what it meant to me to talk to Miss Bugs, um, last week, right before the holidays to tell her of our intent to charge someone who was responsible for the death of her son. Um, it was a powerful and emotional moment. It's the moment that I can tell you with certainty that it's moments we never forget. Um, I was able to reach out to Miss Bugs with investigator Hilton, Captain Thornton. Um, those are very, um, very powerful moments for us. Today we'll be charging Leonard Mickens, um, African American male date of birth, 5 29 1990 with the murder of this year, bugs, uh, with possession of a weapon during a violent crime and the attempted murder of her Kim Lloyd. As many of you remember a day that I know Miss Bugs will never forget on July 3rd, 2015, this year of bugs. It was 14 years old at the time of this incident. And his cousin, Raheem Lloyd, were walking home from a shooting from shooting basketball at Lord Park Gym at about 9 15 at night while walking in the 4100 block of Grand Street, a light colored vehicle approached and ultimately stopped beside them. The driver's window came down and shots were fired this year and Raheem tried to run away. Raheem fell to the ground and this year continued to run. The vehicle sped away and Raheem was found a short distance away between houses. Excuse me. This year was found by regime of short distance away between some houses. He'd collapsed after being shot one time in the upper body and was subsequently pronounced deceased at the scene. The investigation led to locating several witnesses who provided details such as vehicle description, number of shots fired suspect vehicle direction of travel. Investigators also found video footage of the incident that was captured on a home security camera that depicted the vehicle stopping beside this year and showed in this year and Raheem running away. Crime scene investigators also found and collected spent shell casings at the scene. The spent casings were submitted to the sled lab for DNA analysis and Niven entry. And if you'll indulge me for a moment, it's the results of the evidence collection, the forensic examination, the ballistics testing, the DNA analysis, and the incredible multi jurisdictional agency collaboration I want to discuss further. This will also illustrate what an absolute menace Leonard Mickens had been to our community. And he was literally what I would consider to be a walking crime spree, but not anymore. Starting with Niger's case, sled DNA analysis confirmed that Leonard Mickens DNA was present on a 40 caliber spent shell casing found at the Niger bugs murder scene. Ballistic testing and Niven entry of the 40 caliber spent casing also determined that the same gun was used during the Niger bugs murder was also used during a July or excuse me, June 2015 attempted murder, which occurred at 7613 Garner's Ferry Road in Richelon County's jurisdiction. Had that scene deputies collected 40 caliber casings and examined them and submitted them for Niven entry, ultimately linking back to the bugs case. On August 11 2015 Lexington County Sheriff's Department investigated the murder of Dante Foil at 5324 Bush River Road. Last week, on November 20, Lexington County charged Leonard Mickens with Doyle's murder. During the Doyle murder crime scene investigation, investigators collected spent nine millimeter casings at that scene. Further ballistic examination and Niven entry determined that the same weapon used in Doyle's murder was used in the August 6 2015 Gonzalez garden shooting where four people were shot, all non fatal injuries. In the Gonzalez garden shooting investigation, investigators collected nine millimeter spent casings, submitted them for ballistic examination and Niven entry, and it resulted in the link back to the will's murder. And last on August 27 2015, the Midlands Gang Task Force investigators, they located Mickens, along with several other people sitting in a vehicle behind a residence on Victory Street in Columbia, a subsequent search of the vehicle by gang investigators located three firearms, a 45 caliber pistol, a 40 caliber pistol, a nine millimeter pistol. The weapons were test fired, examined and spit casings entered into Niven. The Niven results indicated the 40 caliber pistol and nine millimeter pistol were used during another attempted murder that occurred about 12 hours earlier at 3908 West Avenue in Columbia. The victim in the West Avenue shooting was hit multiple times and suffered non fatal injuries. Leonard Mickens was taken into federal custody for an unrelated weapons charge following the August 27 Victory Street incident. He has been detained in the Lexington County Detention Center since that time. And while this investigation continued by all the agencies I previously mentioned. So in recap, we had a total of six instances where there was connectivity between Leonard Mickens and farms in some way shape or form. We've recovered three weapons, two of them identified to multiple cases. And then on the Grand Street case in the in the Lexington County case, we know that we have connections involving a gun, but those guns have not been recovered. This is a textbook example of what you can achieve with multi agency cooperation and collaboration. When it doesn't matter who gets the credit. I can't say enough about the Niven system that we have taken advantage of the last few years and that system would not be possible if it wasn't for our ATF partners. That really is I think advancing us quicker than any technology I've seen in in the last 10 years in terms of violent crime investigations. I can't say enough about the work of the criminal investigation division, specifically our violent crime investigators. And just to recap, in 2017, we had 11 homicides. Every one of those homicides was cleared by arrest in 2018. Year to date, we've had 14 homicides, and they've also cleared those by arrest. Just a few weeks ago, we announced the arrest of Carlos Lowe for the murder of Ann Marie Johnson. That was a 2015 Paul Street homicide that again, with it's another example of we don't call cases cold around here. We continue to follow leads up. And we brought closure to that family. And then of course earlier this year, we announced the Brook Pines double murder case arrest and that is pending trial. Either next month or the first of the year. So I say thank you again to our partnering agencies, the work of the Midlands Gang Task Force and in cooperation with State Law Enforcement Division in Lexington County. The Fifth Circuit Solicitor's Office was outstanding to work with in this investigation. And the US Attorney's Office has been instrumental, I think, in pushing this forward.