Columbia white man wanted to ‘get rid of’ Black people. He gets 9 years for hate crime

A 34-year-old Columbia white man who shot a gun at a Black man and later told police he wanted to kill Black people was sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison under federal hate crime statutes.

Jonathan Andrew Felkel, who has been diagnosed with mental health issues, was sentenced by U.S. Judge Mary Geiger Lewis toward the end of a 30-minute hearing at the federal courthouse near downtown Columbia.

The crime, basically described as “interference with housing rights” by Judge Lewis, carries a 10-year maximum sentence.

Felkel, who lived in the well-to-do largely white community of Spring Valley, told police after he was arrested that on the morning of July 17, 2025, he left his Spring Valley home and “went looking for people of color.”

When he came upon Jarvis McKenzie, who was standing at the Spring Valley gate waiting for a ride to work, Felkel fired his rifle and shouted, “ ‘You better run, boy!’... all merely because of the color of’’ McKenzie’s skin, court documents show.

McKenzie, 48, is an employee of the city of Columbia and works for the city’s water and sewer department.

McKenzie is also a Spring Valley resident who lived less than a mile from where Felkel lived. Spring Valley is a major upscale 1,200-acre subdivision of hundreds of mostly large homes north of downtown Columbia.

During the hearing, McKenzie spoke, telling the judge he was still affected by events that morning. “It’s not a safe home no more.” He had asked the judge to give Felkel the maximum recommended sentence — nine years — and she obliged, saying the crime was extremely serious and she needed to send a message so as to deter others from similar crimes.

Felkel had told police interviewing him that he “thought white people should round up all Black people, take them to a field, and “get rid of them.”

Felkel “has since admitted that he originally intended to fatally shoot at ... McKenzie and kill him but instead chose to fire a warning shot,” according to a prosecution memo in the case.

McKenzie was “terrified” and fled across the street, where he called his fiancée and checked himself for gunshot wounds, according to the prosecution memo.

Felkel was arrested within a day. He was easily identified because he had fired his rifle from inside his car, and a Spring Valley security camera captured its image and license plate.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar Fyall told the judge Thursday there was no doubt that Felkel “did that because he (McKenzie) was Black.”

The maximum recommended sentence was needed, Fyall told the judge, because Felkel used a dangerous weapon and the shooting was so random. “It could have been anybody,” he said.

Also, Fyall said, “The impact on the community was very jarring.”

Felkel told police he had shot at McKenzie, whom he did not know, because he believed that there was a conspiracy of Black people committing crimes in his community and “he further believed that (McKenzie) ... may be a member of that conspiracy due to his race,” according to a prosecution statement of the case.

“Filled with remorse”

Charles George, Felkel’s attorney, told the judge that his client was “filled with remorse for his actions.”

“My client is truly sorry for the pain he has inflicted for the pain he has inflicted on the victim and society in general,” said George, a Goose Creek lawyer.

George said Felkel suffers from both audio and visual delusions, as well as having substance abuse issues. He has recently been taking Prozac, a prescription antidepressant used to treat depression and certain behavior disorders.

Felkel has taken culinary courses and hopefully will be a productive citizen when he leaves prison, George said.

In a brief statement to the judge, Felkel — a diminutive person at about 5-4 and about 130 pounds — said he apologized.

“If I could go back to that day, I wouldn’t do it,” he said, wearing an oversized orange jail jump suit. His brown beard and hair were overgrown, looking as if they had not had a trim since he was first arrested a year ago.

“I am prepared to accept responsibility,” Felkel said.

The judge speaks

Judge Lewis was moved by the crime.

“I grew up in Spring Valley,” she told the audience of about 50 news media, court officials and law officers in the courtroom. “It hurts me to think this could happen in the neighborhood where I grew up.”

The crime affects far more than just McKenzie and Felkel, Lewis said, adding she needed her sentence to send a message.

“The idea that this can happen. It’s sad for everyone involved,” she said.

In giving Felkel the maximum requested by the prosecution, Lewis said, she is sending the message that this type of hate crime “is not something we can tolerate.”

Nine years, or 108 months, “is the right thing to do,” she said.

The press conference afterward

“This type of racially motivated violence is not what South Carolina stands for and will not be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Bryan Stirling told reporters outside the courthouse.

“If you do this, you are going to be going to prison for a very lengthy time,” Stirling said.

Stirling said that Felkel had told multiple people that he was patrolling Spring Valley and was looking for criminals, and that’s why he shot McKenzie.

Stirling also praised the good working partnership between the Richland County sheriff’s department and the FBI — a partnership that helped bring the case from arrest to prison sentence in just one day under a year.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said that while Felkel had a drug problem, his real problem was “hate in his heart... Justice was served today.”

Law officials refused to comment on what kind of hate crime material, if any, investigators found on Felkel’s computer and digital devices.

The silence by law officers about digital hate crime evidence in Felkel’s case contrasted with that kind of evidence brought forward in the 2015 massacre in Charleston of nine African-Americans by a white supremacist. In prosecuting Dylann Roof for his hate crime murders in that case, the FBI made public extensive information about how Roof had spent substantial time on racist internet sites.

Roof is now on federal death row in Indiana awaiting execution while his appeals play out.

Since his arrest last year, Felkel has been an inmate in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center unable to make the $1 million bond.

The federal hate crime under which Felkel was convicted pertains to the intimidation of people to keep them away from housing opportunities based on their race, or “interfering with housing rights,” as Judge Lewis put it during the hearing.

McKenzie, accompanied by his attorney Tyler Bailey, said, he still worries about the possibility of a shooter every time he leaves his house and looks around.

“I wasn’t expected anything to happen that day,” McKenzie said. But he quickly found out that “I was the target,” he said.

Bailey called attention to the South Carolina not having a state hate crime law.

“There’s nothing in state law deterring hate crimes. That is what the federal government had to do what they did,” Bailey said. With no state hate crime law, South Carolina sends a message that “this type of stuff is permissible here,” said Bailey, a Columbia city council member.

“The federal government did a fantastic job taking this seriously, and the court took it seriously,” Bailey said.

Last year, Felkel became the first person in Richland County charged under the county’s hate crime law, which was passed in June 2025. The county’s ordinance is a misdemeanor that carries a $500 fine and 30 days in jail. The charge is still pending.

With South Carolina’s majority-white General Assembly continually rejecting efforts to pass a state hate crimes law, some cities and towns started passing their own ordinances.

The case was investigated first by Richland County sheriff’s department and then by the FBI.

The gun Felkel fired was a Remington Model 7400, 30-06 caliber Springfield semiautomatic hunting rifle with magazine and attached optic and sling.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story was originally published July 16, 2026 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Columbia white man wanted to ‘get rid of’ Black people. He gets 9 years for hate crime."