LEXINGTON COUNTY — An Orangeburg man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison following his conviction in a 2022 shooting outside a Harbison Boulevard restaurant.<\/p>\n
Brandon Rashad Benjamin, 34, was convicted April 3 of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Circuit Court Judge Shawn Graham<\/span><\/span> presided over the week-long trial and imposed the sentence, which includes a concurrent five-year term for the weapon charge. Under South Carolina law, attempted murder is classified as a violent, most serious offense and is not eligible for parole.<\/p>\n The case was prosecuted by Assistant Solicitors Kelly Oppenheimer<\/span><\/span> and Caroline Strom<\/span><\/span>, along with Deputy Solicitor Angela G. Martin<\/span><\/span>. The investigation was conducted by the Columbia Police Department<\/span><\/span> and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n According to testimony, the incident occurred Dec. 23, 2022, as the victim was leaving the Olive Garden. Authorities said Benjamin confronted the victim in the parking lot, threatened him with a firearm, and asked, “Are you feeling close to God?”<\/p>\n Investigators said the two men had a prior dispute involving a woman. After initially leaving the area, Benjamin returned, exited his vehicle, and fired multiple shots in the crowded parking lot, striking the victim once in the arm.<\/p>\n The victim suffered severe bleeding and was aided by an off-duty Lexington County firefighter and an off-duty Newberry County Sheriff’s Office investigator until emergency responders arrived. He was transported to Prisma Health Richland<\/span><\/span>, where he underwent two surgeries.<\/p>\n The following day, Benjamin was stopped in Richland County for an expired tag. Authorities said he initially cooperated before leading officers on a 19-mile pursuit through Richland and Lexington counties. The chase ended in the city of Cayce<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n Officers recovered a 9mm handgun from the vehicle, which forensic testing later confirmed was used in the shooting.<\/p>\n Officials said the sentence brings accountability in a case that endangered both the victim and others in a busy public area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LEXINGTON COUNTY — An Orangeburg man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison following his conviction in a 2022 shooting outside a Harbison Boulevard restaurant. Brandon Rashad Benjamin, 34, was convicted April 3 of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Circuit Court Judge ShawnContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44],"tags":[80,391],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-8398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-public-safety","tag-crime","tag-solicitors-office"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Brandon-Rashad-Benjamin_2026_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}