A South Carolina man already charged in the killing of three teenagers is back behind bars. Deputies say they found a machine gun hidden inside his baby's crib.
Karlos Gibson, 20, was out on bond for a 2023 triple murder when Richland County deputies searched his home in Columbia early Wednesday morning, August 5. What they found raises hard questions about how much freedom courts give defendants who are still waiting for trial on violent charges.
Gibson has worn an ankle monitor since he made bond on three counts of murder tied to a 2023 shooting that killed three high school students. That monitor was supposed to be a safeguard. Instead, deputies say he had illegal machine guns in a room with his 10 month old baby.
Deputies searched Gibson's home Wednesday morning. They found two guns in the baby's bedroom. One gun was in the closet. The second gun was inside the crib, within reach of the child.
Both guns were modified with a device called a Glock switch. A Glock switch is a small illegal part. It turns a normal handgun into a machine gun. One pull of the trigger fires many bullets fast instead of just one. Deputies say they found a third switch among Gibson's belongings.
Gibson now faces two new charges. The first is possession of a machine gun. That charge covers any gun illegally changed to fire like a machine gun. The second charge is unlawful conduct toward a child. That charge covers putting a kid in danger.
A judge set bond at 2,500 dollars for the machine gun charge. The judge set a 1,000 dollar personal recognizance bond for the child charge. A personal recognizance bond means Gibson did not have to pay cash. He only had to promise to show up to court. Gibson is being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County.
The new charges hit different because of what already happened once. In September 2023, three Eau Claire High School students were shot and killed in Richland County. Caleb Wise, 16, Jakobe Fanning, 16, and Dre'Von Riley, 17, all died. A fourth teenager, 14, was hurt but survived.
Gibson was 17 at the time. Deputies arrested him along with another 17 year old, Jahkeem Griffin, and a 14 year old boy whose name was never released because he is a minor. All three were charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the shooting came from an old grudge. He said it started with a burglary two years before the killings. "A beef that just continues to grow," Lott said, "then young people decide that they're going to solve it by shooting."
That case is still open. Gibson has not gone to trial for the 2023 killings. He was free on bond while the case moved through the courts, which is how he was home with his baby this week when deputies came with a search warrant.
Gibson is now out on bond again for the new gun and child endangerment charges, even though he was already out on bond for murder. That detail has drawn attention from South Carolina news outlets, which point out that a man accused of a triple killing was allowed back into the community twice.
For now, Gibson faces both the pending murder case from 2023 and the new gun and child endangerment charges from this month. It is not yet clear when either case will go to trial. It is also not clear whether prosecutors will ask a judge to revoke his bond in the murder case because of the new arrest.
The Richland County Sheriff's Department has not said what led deputies to search Gibson's home this week. Deputies have also not said whether anyone else living in the home will face charges. The investigation is active, and more charges are possible as it continues.
