FOREST ACRES, S.C. (AP) — The young police officer killed in a South Carolina mall shooting was a committed officer of the peace who loved working in the tiny suburban community of Forest Acres, his wife Kassy Alia said Thursday.
Wearing one of Officer Gregory Alia’s blue uniform shirts and cradling their 6-month-old son Sal, Alia appeared at police headquarters where local residents placed flowers and bereavement notes around the officer’s patrol car.
Alia told reporters she and the officer’s parents were grateful for the outpouring of support and that she was blessed to have shared a life with the 32-year-old officer who was raised in Forest Acres and attended the University of South Carolina.
“He loved his work. He was committed to his job,” Alia told WLTX-TV. “He was a selfless servant.”
Alia said she was thankful for the more than $100,000 contributed overnight on social media websites for the family, but she was more interested in collecting people’s photos and memories of her husband, so she could one day share them with their son.
“My husband would be so proud of how wonderful people are,” Alia said.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has charged 34-year-old Jarvis Hall with Alia’s shooting death during a struggle at the nearby Richland Mall. The shopping center is in Forest Acres, a small residential community surrounded by the city of Columbia.
Hall is to appear at the Richland County Detention Center on Thursday afternoon.
According to arrest warrants, Hall shot Alia with a stolen .40-caliber pistol. He was arrested immediately.
Alia died after being taken to a local hospital from the Richland Mall, Forest Acres Police Chief Gene Sealy said Wednesday. Sealy said no other injuries were reported.
The chief said Alia was a seven-year veteran, a new father and a life-long resident of the Columbia area where he had attended local schools.
“He was an outstanding police officer,” Sealy said. “He was just training a new officer who happened to be with him.”
The chief called his group of two dozen officers “one big family.” A few of them stood grim-faced in the back of the room as Sealy spoke. Outside the room, several female staffers dabbed tears from their eyes.
The U.S. flag outside the single-story police building was lowered to half-staff, and local residents began leaving flowers on a police cruiser parked outside the headquarters shortly afterward.
Sealy said Alia was responding to a report of a suspicious person in the Richland Mall’s parking lot.
He said the suspect fled from the officers and ran into the mall. Alia struggled with the man and the officer was shot, Sealy said.
He said Hall had a knife as well as the gun, which an arrest warrant said was stolen in neighboring Lexington County in early September.
Records show Hall was arrested in August for failure to stop for a Columbia police officer. It was not clear why he was not in jail at the time of the shooting; a 30-day sentence he had received wasn’t due to be completed until Oct. 16.
Members of Alia’s fraternity at the University of South Carolina, Phi Sigma Kappa, scheduled a vigil in his honor Thursday evening on the USC campus.
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