Self-proclaimed Chicago gangbanger awaiting hearing after attacking girlfriend, threatening Chapin p

Chapin, SC (Paul Kirby) – A Chicago, IL man who said he was a member of a notorious gang, is sitting in the Lexington County Detention Center after he attacked his female travelling companion and threatened a Chapin police officer and a Lexington County deputy. According to Chapin Police Chief Seth Zeigler, the man said that he was a high-ranking member of a gang in Illinois while he was reluctantly being taken into custody by officers. The incident, which happened in November, occurred inside the Corner Pantry at the intersection of Columbia Avenue and I-26. Because of the serious nature of the charges, the suspect is still in jail after a judge denied him a chance to bond out.

Chief Zeigler said that the encounter just happened to have taken place in Chapin. The suspect, identified as Vincent Louden, a black male, age 39, and his live-in girlfriend were enroute to a graduation ceremony at Ft. Jackson in Columbia. The pair had almost completed the 800-mile journey when they stopped at the Chapin exit. While the pair were outside the store, they started to argue, and their fight eventually turned physical. Louden’s girlfriend ran into the restroom at the store and locked the door to prevent him from further attacking her after he nearly strangled her.

At some point, a store employee activated a panic alarm which summoned Chapin Police Officer Walker Campbell to the scene. According to the police report, when Campbell arrived at the scene, the officer observed Louden beating and kicking on the bathroom door in an attempt to get at the woman who was locked inside. Officer Campbell approached Louden and began to intercede. Almost immediately, the suspect became verbally aggressive toward the officer.

Because of the size of the suspect, Louden is 6’ 4” tall and weighs over 320 pounds, Officer Campbell drew his Taser, a non-lethal device, from his utility belt, pointed it at Louden, and commanded him to take his hands out of his pockets, turn around, and place his hands behind his back. Campbell’s report says that at that point he was just going to secure Louden’s hands for his and the officer’s safety while he conducted his investigation.

At this point, a deputy from LCSD arrived to back Campbell up. He also un-holstered his Taser and pointed it at the suspect who yelled that the officers would, “have to shoot me,” to get him to comply with their commands. Eventually, however, the suspect did comply, and the two law enforcement officers detained the suspect by cuffing him. Chapin Police Chief Seth Zeigler had arrived on scene at this point, and he and the deputy and Zeigler removed the suspect from the store while Officer Campbell told the female she was safe, and she could come out of the bathroom so he could talk with her.

When Campbell interviewed the victim, he found that the pair had been travelling for hours and Louden was behind the wheel. He began dozing off, and she told him to pull off the interstate so that she could drive. They just happened to select the next exit, which was Chapin. While in the parking lot of the Corner Pantry, Louden began to curse and scream and became aggressive toward her. The victim ran inside the store and requested that the clerk notify the police because she, “knew what was about to happen.” That’s when the clerk activated the panic alarm which caused the police to respond.

Eventually, the victim said, Louden followed her into the store, grabbed her several times around her throat with his hands, and even chased her behind the counter when she fled. He also went behind the counter, grabbed her with both his hands at her throat, dragged her back into the store space, and threw her down. When her brother tried to intercede on her behalf, Louden threw him into a store display, knocking the display over. That was when the victim fled into the restroom. The suspect had even gone back outside at one point, picked up a concrete flower container, and almost threw that through the window of the store.

Once Louden had been placed into custody, he threatened the safety of Officer Campbell several times while cursing. Chief Zeigler advised the officers and deputies on the scene that those threats and loud, abusive language constituted disorderly conduct and his status had changed from detained for questioning to under arrest. Louden continued to resist officers, and at one point grabbed, and then tried to head-butt a LCSD deputy who was going to transport him to jail. During that encounter, Chief Zeigler and several of the deputies took Louden to the ground to further restrain him. They requested an ambulance respond to check him for injuries, and he was transported to Lexington Medical Center for evaluation before being transported to, and then booked into the jail.

Because the encounter happened at a convenience store, there is plenty of video evidence of all the things that happened during this encounter before, during, and after the arrival of officers. Chief Zeigler said during his report at the Tuesday night council meeting that the department had enough evidence to charge Louden with Domestic Battery of a High and Aggravated Nature, Threatening the Life of a Public Official, and Resisting Arrest.

Chief Zeigler said in an interview after the encounter, “He was on an emotional rollercoaster when he was acting as he was. It’s sad that we see people at their absolute worst, but our officers and the deputies from the county handled this just as they were trained to.” Zeigler thanked the sheriff’s department deputies for their assistance as well. “We rely on our partnerships with other agencies to help us do our job daily,” Zeigler said.