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South Carolina’s Holy City was abuzz this week after a trio of young men were found on the roof of a College of Charleston parking garage – allegedly passed out in a vehicle loaded to the gills with guns and ammunition.
The incident unfolded at approximately 2:40 a.m. EDT on Sunday (June 1, 2025) on the roof of the Saint Philip Street parking garage in downtown Charleston, S.C. After observing a suspicious vehicle on surveillance footage, officers with the college’s public safety department approached it and encountered three individuals – Jorge Antonio Calvario, A’tavious Sincere Flowers and J’marri Aisian McCall – unconscious inside the car.
Multiple automatic weapons and handguns were discovered on their persons – along with a massive cache of ammunition. Specifically, police recovered three dozen rounds and three magazines of 10mm ammunition, 14 rounds of .45 caliber ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) ammunition, 184 rounds of .300 ammunition and five 7.62mm rifle magazines.
The trio was, definitionally, “loaded for bear.”
Upon removing the three men from the vehicle – a process which occurred without incident – responding officers noted all three were “unsteady on their feet” and had “red, glassy eyes and the odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from their breath.”
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After placing the three men in custody, campus police attempted to charge them with a violation of S.C. Code of Laws § 16-23-420 – which prohibits the possession of “a firearm of any kind on any premises or property owned, operated, or controlled by a private or public school, college, university, technical college, other post-secondary institution.”
When these charges were taken to Charleston County magistrate Mary Paige Adams, however, she conferred with fellow magistrate Amanda Haselden and a decision was made not to sign arrest warrants on this charge – and to release the three men from police custody.
To read mainstream media accounts, this decision by Adams and Haseldon lacked any rational justification – or explanation. In fact, reporters with The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier specifically called Adams out for refusing to return their calls seeking “the reasoning behind her refusal to approve the swearing of arrest warrants.”
Never mind that judges are not allowed to speak with members of the media, meaning Adams couldn’t provide “the reasoning” for her decision even if she wanted to.
Public outrage predictably – and on the surface, appropriately – followed. Charleston residents were up in arms over the apparent miscarriage of justice and subsequent endangerment of their community.
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What the Post and Courier failed to mention, however, was the existence of an explicit statutory exemption – one contained in the very law College of Charleston police were seeking to enforce upon these three men. That exemption holds that the aforementioned campus firearm ban “does not apply to a guard, law enforcement officer, or member of the armed forces.”
Why does that matter? Because Calvario, Flowers and McCall are each active duty military.
Instead of mentioning that key piece of information, however, the Post and Courier publicly shamed these two judges and proceeded to go on a woke tirade against the Palmetto State’s permit-less carry law – which has absolutely nothing to do with this situation at all.
College police chief Chip Searson belatedly acknowledged “a current clause in the state law allows enlisted members of the military (and others) to carry firearms on school/college/university property.”
Nonetheless, Searson maintained his officers made the correct call – even though they were reportedly warned in advance that this “clause” would prevent any judge from signing a sworn probable cause affidavit leveling the weapons charge.
“I contend this is not being interpreted in the spirit of why this law was written,” Searson wrote in a post on his Facebook page. “The mere fact you are in the military should not give you the right to possess weapons on school property unless authorized or in performance of duties.”
“Certainly, not at 2:38 a.m., laying unconscious with the doors open in a vehicle,” Searson added.
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Those are valid points… and reasonable carveouts to the statute allowing military members to carry weapons on school campuses. The problem? Those carveouts, however reasonable, do not currently exist in state law. Meaning a judge cannot issue arrest warrants based on them.
In fact, a judge would have been in violation of her oath of office had she done so…
Without knowing everything about the facts of this case, it seems clear from incident reports that probable cause existed to charge these three men with public drunkenness and/or disorderly conduct. Why were they not charged with those crimes?
College of Charleston police say their investigation into this matter is ongoing and that Calvario, Flowers and McCall – each of whom should probably be facing some form of military discipline over the incident – could see “additional” charges at the state level. While we wait for the situation to unfold, we would remind our audience that facts matter, context matters and – most importantly – the law matters.
No media outlet is harder on judges than FITSNews, but sometimes their hands truly are tied… and in those cases it’s important for people to know the full story behind what actually transpired.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
Was it a “media misfire” when FITS repeatedly claimed there were hundreds of unreported deaths from Helene and never proved it or owned up to their obvious lie?
Oh, and here is the extent of the supposed “public shaming” and “woke tirade” FITS claimed the P&C was doing:
“A reporter with The Post and Courier left a message with Adams’ office to inquire on the reasoning behind her refusal to approve the swearing of arrest warrants but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
An administrator within the magistrate’s court office speculated that the reasoning was likely a lack of probable cause.
South Carolina is a “permitless carry” state, as signed into law by Gov. Henry McMaster in March 2024. The statute allows anyone who is not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm to be able to carry one openly or concealed without a permit. Firearms are still prohibited from school campuses as a stipulation of the law.”
It seems like the only one that has an agenda here is FITS.
WTF – I bet their chain of command would love to know about these three “unconscious, heavily armed individuals”. It may be legal to “go strapped” off post but it isn’t on post. The exemption for “guard, law enforcement officer, or member of the armed forces.” is not a blanket exemption and as interpreted by SLED, only applies to members of the military only when they are engaged in “…an event specifically related to firearms…” (the exemption was designed to protect ROTC/JROTC Instructors and recruiters)
This is wild. Your blog regularly reports on things where you leave out facts or just make them up. It is the height of irony for this rag to criticize the real news for something you have literally made your trademark.
And then to cap it off, are we mad at the judges or happy? I cannot tell. I know you often criticize judges for doing what the law requires even when it is unpopular, so is this now okay? Hard to keep up.
I can imagine a lot of boo-hooing from LE circles now, demanding that the law be changed. Remember, “We don’t make the law, we just enforce it.” Obviously, these guys caused no harm and likely intended none. Why appropriate charges were not made for intoxication; well that sounds to be on the arresting officers. Sounds to me like Justice has been served.