Law&Crime Sidebar - Father Arrested After Son Throws Massive Halloween Party

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

A huge Halloween party thrown by a South Carolina teen ended in gun violence, leaving several shot. The host's father, Kyle Johnson, now faces criminal charges. Why is this parent being held responsible, and what does controversial surveillance footage reveal? Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber and criminal defense attorney Jeffrey Wolf have the latest in this shocking case.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Whoever you pray to, you need to say a prayer thanks, that your child's not dead. Tragic that we cannot have large gatherings of teenagers without somebody pulling a gun out and shooting. So those numerous parents who, the child got to come home that night, You need to thank somebody higher up for that. However, we did have three that were shot. A massive party, gunshots, and now a father facing criminal charges, all for what allegedly

happened at a Halloween bonfire celebration. Why is this parent being held criminally responsible? What could be the defense? And who else is still at large? Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Real quick.

Let me say this. Do you know why we can cover an important story like this? It's because of the support that we get from Morgan and Morgan, our sponsor. I'm talking about America's largest personal injury law firm. I'm talking about a firm with over 1,000 attorneys who have recovered $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In fact, in the past few months alone, a client in Florida received $12 million when insurance offered just $350,000. In Pennsylvania, another client was awarded $26 million.

That is, 40 times the insurer's offer. And Morgan and Morgan, they make it so easy to fight for what you deserve. You can start a claim from your phone. So if you're injured, you can start a claim at forthepeople.com slash LC sidebar. You can click the link below or you can scan the QR code on screen. Parents out there, let me tell you, this is not a story about a parent coming home to find out that their child through a massive party and the kid gets grounded. No, this is completely different.

This is about absolute chaos and violence that broke out at a party and now a father is being held criminally responsible. 43-year-old Kyle Johnson out in Richland County, South Carolina, is now facing criminal charges after his teenage son allegedly through a massive bonfire party attended by at least 500 to 800 people, mostly young people, and a shooting breaks out, injuring several people, leaving others. fleeing for their lives. In fact, here is Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who didn't mince words, okay, explains what happened on October 31st on the 11,000 block of Wilson Boulevard. A lot of young people who were unsupervised, out of control on some things, using drugs, lots of underage drinking, just totally free to break the law, do whatever. start shooting and people getting shot. These are our victims.

Two females, 16 and 17, and a male 17, are shot. They will carry those scars for the rest of their life because of what Kyle Johnson did not do, and that would be apparent that night. Pandemonium. Now, Sheriff Lott claims that this party happened on Johnson's property, that he allowed, all of this to happen, that he participated in it, that he was there when the gunshots were fired, that he needs to be held accountable. Now, we will see if that can be proven in a court of law, but that is how you get to criminal liability, arguably. The sheriff's deputies,

they apparently arrived earlier in the night on this property. This was after a noise complaint, ordered the party to be shut down by 11 p.m., but it was only 15 to 20 minutes later, according to authorities, that gunshots rang out. Now, a few things to note here. The people connected to the shooting, in other words, the person or persons who fired or carried firearms that night, they have not been arrested at the time of this recording. However, Sheriff Lott promises all will eventually be arrested. But Johnson, he was arrested on November 12th on two counts of contributing to the delinquency

of a minor and one count of aggravated breach of peace. And as we're about to discuss, these charges bond Johnson's potential defense statements. I haven't even mentioned the apparent surveillance footage that Lott showed to the media that may change this whole story. Let me bring in Jeff Wolf, criminal defense attorney, to talk more about this. Thanks so much for coming back here on Sidebar. I mean, how often are parents charged for allegedly participating or throwing or allowing a party? I mean, not everyone ends in a shooting, but there is a statement. and being made here.

Yeah, this used to be something we didn't see a lot of, right? We would always see it if a parent provided the alcohol to a party or provided drugs to a party. You know, you think of the fun mom cases that we started to see a few years back, but this didn't used to be something that you would see. You would see kids get charged, and it would be minor offenses. And so it wasn't really viewed as much of a deterrent to something like this. But it's something we started to see.

We saw it with the school shooting out there in Michigan. and it's something that prosecutors are starting to do, which is to hold parents accountable for the behavior of their children. It's becoming the new wave of prosecution. This one, I think, might be a bridge too far to hold a parent accountable for the throwing of a party, but no kid has been charged with the actual shooting. And so what they're trying to say is the parent for the kids who threw the party

is potentially responsible for an unidentified other child who decided to pull a gun. and do some shooting. Well, let me ask you about that. The charges, going to these charges, are they broad enough that it can just encompassed? You had, what, 500 to 800 people there, minors allegedly drinking, doing drugs, things of that nature. And then it just so happens, a shooting happens. Because what are they charge?

He's charged with, right? Contributing to the delinquency of a minor, which if you look up, it says it shall be unlawful for any person over 18 years of age, to knowingly and willfully encourage aid or call. cause or to do any act which shall cause or influence a minor to, quote, violate any law or any municipal ordinance. Is that easy to prove? Is breach of the peace easy to prove here? Well, I mean, it's hard to prove if they're saying that he just didn't do enough to parent his children, which is what all of their statements are saying, that he wasn't parenting, that he wasn't supervising his children enough to stop them from doing this. Not doing enough to stop

an action is different than encouraging it and providing it and making it happen, okay? Not parenting is different than making something happen, because when you're contributing to the delinquency of a minor, you are making it happen. And if the simple act of not parenting is what they're saying is what contributed to this occurring, that's a lot different. And what they're going to have to prove is that his children are the reason that this occurred. Throwing a party is a lot different than if his kids brought in this alcohol with his assistance. Well, that question I would be is it's not just a responsibility as part of this

charge for what he did with his children, but let's say if he, I guess the allegation would be, look, hosting the party, right? It's on his property. He knows what's going on. Let's say he's allegedly allowing people to come in. I did think it was interesting that when the sheriff was asked a question by a reporter about whether Johnson, provided drugs and alcohol, he wouldn't answer that. And it feels like if he had evidence of that, wouldn't he have mentioned it? Or wouldn't he, that be part of his arrest, right? So if this is not a, but I don't know if that matters.

Because again, if you're hosting a party on your property where people are, where young people, juveniles, minors are drinking and doing drugs. If that's allegations true, does it even matter if you supplied it yourself or just allowing to happen for purposes of these charges? Well, I think it does matter because it. If the evidence at this trial ends up bearing out or in this case ends up bearing out that he told his kids, hey, you can have people over, but don't drink, don't do drugs, or that conversation never came up. Having people over at your house is not a license to get drunk, do drugs, and God forbid, have a shooting at your house. There's a big difference there.

My kids have slumber parties. That doesn't mean I'm telling them that their friends can bring alcohol and drugs into my home. There's a big difference there. You don't have to sit and watch your kids when they have people over now. They're not having 500 people over to my house. But you can't necessarily hold a parent responsible for everything their child does dependent on what they encourage, what they allow, what they purchase, what they let their kids purchase. There's a lot being unsaid here.

Like you said, the sheriff wouldn't answer direct questions. And I do agree that if they had proof that he had purchased alcohol or allowed it to be purchased or brought onto his property, you can bet your bottom dollar they would have. said it. And holding him responsible for the shooting when they can't even figure out who did the shooting, I think is a bridge too far. Here's where I think things get a little complicated. Okay. So Sheriff Lott says that he has some incriminating surveillance footage of Johnson. Take a look. The shooting happened around 1047. Deputies had already been out at 1015 and spoke to Kyle Johnson, the father. that was in control of this, talked to him. I told him that this party needed to be shut down.

It didn't get shut down. 1045, 1045, 1047, somewhere in that time frame is when shots rang out. We know at least 20 shots were filed, at least possibly more. At least 20 shots was fired. Kyle Johnson was there when the shots were fired. He knew people had gotten shot. He knew the chaos that happened afterwards. So at 1107, that's not very long.

He's not there. He's in his convenience store. That's him right here. These are kids from the party, and he is just casually in a convenience store buying some drinks. We care less about. about what's going on in this property. Could care less that kids have been shot and it's total chaos.

He's just there casually buying some sodas. You'll see the minute he'll, these kids are there. They still got costume going. He'll start fist pumping them because they realized that they were all at the same place. There we go. There's fist pumps. Is that a parent as concerned about what just happened

at his house? on his property with these kids that are shot, does that look any concern whatsoever? I don't think so. That is not what a parent is. That is not what a parent should be doing. He's responsible for that party. He's responsible for what happened that night

because he allowed it to happen. I mean, if that's true, if that timeline's true there, and he is there after the shooting, and he's allegedly fist bumping and buying supplies, and buying supplies. Isn't that bad? Jeff, isn't that bad for Mr. Johnson? It's not a good look.

There's no question about that. But who's he buying those beverages for becomes the issue, right? If he's going back to his own property to finish his own night, that's a lot different than if he's buying a keg to keep the party going, or if he is providing alcohol to those kids. You know, fist bumping kids who've just been through a traumatic incident. There's not audio in that video. in that video. If he's saying, hey, you know, stay up, kids, you know, have, you know, a good

rest of your night. I'm sorry that you just went through that. I've seen teachers in hallways of high schools who have, you know, dealt with kids who've just had a bad weekend and they're trying to, you know, lift their spirits. I'd like to hear the other side of that conversation. You're a good, you're a good defense attorney. Let me tell you. Because the other, the other way of looking at it is he's so cavalier about what just happened. he can care less. He's not, look, you're right. He's not being charged for being a bad parent. Like, it's not the elements of failure as a parent is the charge. These are very specific charges with very specific elements. But, you know, look at his potential defense. So according to WIS 10,

before his court appearance, Johnson, who by the way, reportedly turned himself into authorities, told the outlet that while he feels responsible for his children that night, he denies that drugs and alcohol were being used. And according to News 19, he said there were other adults present. How does that affect the analysis? Well, it definitely affects the analysis because, again, I don't think he can be held responsible for everybody's children. And so if there were other parents there who were responsible for their own children,

and quite frankly, even if they weren't, they're responsible for parenting their own children as well, that is something where you can't just hold one person responsible if other parents were there in the same way that, you know, two little league teams take the field. You can't just hold one coach responsible if the two teams get into a fight. And so other parents, other adults present, that's something where we got to look at everybody. We can't just hold one homeowner responsible for what happened that night. And you're right.

He's not charged with being a bad parent, but what did they say at the press conference? He wasn't being a parent. We want parents to parent their children. We're going to use these statutes to make sure that people parent their children correctly, that's what they're saying. That's what they're telling the public that they're charging him with. While at the same time, if this goes into a court of law at a jury trial, they're going to have to prove the elements of the offense, not that he's a bad parent. And how much does it matter if he's present when the shooting happens? Depends on exactly what happened, right? Because if he's

present when the shooting happens and he says, that guy's being a jerk, shoot him. Well, that's contributing to the delinquency of a minor. If a kid runs up and takes a gun out and starts shooting, he's not any more responsible than anyone else who's standing there. You know, you're not responsible for the actions of another unless you encourage an aid and abet it. Again, the idea would be if he's facilitating this happening. And maybe it's more, maybe it's more for a civil case, but also you do wonder from a criminal point of view how far his liability could go. As they look a little bit more into the shooting and the circumstances of this party, could Johnson face additional charges? Potentially. I mean, if kids were on the property and let's say they were open carrying these

weapons or if they were showing off the weapons and he didn't say, hey, get out of here with those guns or something along those lines, yeah, he could face additional charges based on that potentially. But again, they don't even know who did the shooting at this point. So it's a lot to speculate on right Yeah. I want to ask you about that in a minute, but first, just going back to Johnson. So he was granted a $9,000 bond. Is that unusual in a case like this? What was your reaction to that? I don't think it's unusual based on what he's charged on. Based on what they're holding press conferences about, it's a fairly low bond. So based on what they're saying they want him held responsible for, they didn't get a very high bond, but based on what he's actually charged with, the judge did the right thing. I will also tell you that during his court appearance, there was a victim's advocate who was able to successfully petition the court for a no contact order and a thousand yard restriction for the victims, although Johnson apparently indicated he doesn't even know who the people are that got shot. Why was it necessary to have that? Well, in most states, there are going to be laws that mandate that if there are victims in a case, they're going to get a protection order. And so, you know, lobbying to get that is really, quite frankly, a material because it's usually going to happen that any witnesses or victims to a case are going to get a protection order.

I know in Colorado, it's mandatory. So it probably is in most states, quite frankly, just because we don't want to see tampering. We don't want to see people having the ability to intimidate witnesses and things like that in victims. And we want people to feel safe while cases are pending. So not unusual. Now, going back to this finding out. what happened with the shooting. Even though Sheriff a lot indicated that parents and young people have come forward with information and that any photos or videos taken that night be provided

to law enforcement and that anyone with information is asked to call the Richland County Sheriff's Department at 803-576, 3,000, or crime stoppers at 1-888-S-C, what are the complications on trying to find out what happened with the shooting and who else? to arrest. I mean, I imagine you look through cell phone data, witnesses, but it feels kind of chaotic to find out what happened, no? Yeah, I mean, there's hundreds of kids there. And you also have, you know, the age old thing where people don't want to snitch, right? They don't want to tell on their friends. They don't want to get people in trouble. And so getting people to come forward when they know what's at stake is always going to be tough. But again, it's 2025. And so

So we don't just have eyewitness accounts where we need people to come forward. There's witnesses everywhere, and they're in our pockets. And so as we start to get guest lists from parties like this, cops start to file warrants. And they file warrants for the cell phone data. People think they can delete things off their phone. You can't. Just like a computer, a phone keeps a record of everything that was actually deleted even. There's always a ghost in the machine.

You can't actually get things to be. be deleted off of your devices. And so they can recover, even the stuff that's been deleted. It's saved in the cloud. It's saved in the digital footprint of your hard drive on your phone. And so, you know, they're going to do the legwork they need to do. People have been harmed. And so it may take some time, but they're going to keep working it, I would suspect. I wanted your opinion about two more things that Sheriff Lott had brought up during his press conferences. So the first, and this goes back to the idea of holding parents accountable, is that he said Johnson, arrest marks the first father that they've arrested as part of this new parent accountability

initiative by the sheriff's department to hold parents accountable. But it marks the seventh arrest they've had so far. Have you seen these kinds of initiatives being put forward by law enforcement? And what do you make of it? Yeah, I mean, I think it's becoming a part of a bit of a national trend to hold parents accountable. Like I said, it started with the school shooting out in Michigan, where the parents had bought the gun and didn't take the warnings of the school seriously. And so both of those parents were charged and later convicted in that school shooting as being, you know, complicit and what their son had done. And I think that those convictions have emboldened police and prosecutors across the country to start holding parents accountable

for what their children are doing. And, you know, I think that there is merit to that in very serious cases if parents are not taking those warnings seriously if they are providing weapons to their children. And I don't know that there is going to be backlash potentially to a case like this, though. I think it can trickle down too far. And I think this case is a good test case for it of exactly how accountable are parents going to be. Are they going to be accountable if there is a party at their home and other kids that then come into their home who may or may not even be friends with their children take actions like this. I think that things can go too far. There can be overreach. I think that the government can move too far with something when it becomes

vogue like this. And I understand that. And I completely respect that. I do wonder if it has a deterrent effect. I wonder if somebody looks at this story and goes, I'm not having anybody at our house. I'm not throwing a party. I'm not encouraging a party. I'm going to limit the amount of people that come over. Maybe that's not the worst thing to worry about who's coming over and limit the amount of friends that come over. But I did want to get your perspective on something else. That Sheriff a lot, and he brought this up at his initial press conference, so this is before Johnson was arrested. This was back on November 4th. He was responding to apparent accusations that the police are to blame for what happened. To the parents who are

blaming the sheriff's department putting responsibility on us for this shame on you absolutely shame on you for telling trying to deflect your responsibility on the sheriff's department and saying that we're the ones that should have done more this we're responsible for this shooting that's absurd okay parents that's your responsibility to know where your teenager's at to know what party they're going to and what type of party they're at you know life three six is very simple on their phone to track them. And you see they're out in the woods and Blythe Wood, you need to be asking why.

So Jeff, I mean, is he right that police did essentially everything that they were supposed to do, that it's the parents who are responsible? I guess I wonder if it comes from the idea of, well, police showed up, told them to stop the party by 11, and then it was what, only 15 or 20 minutes later that the shooting happened. Does police, are they responsible for this in any way? I don't know that they're, again, I don't like putting the responsibility of an individual's actions on others. Yeah, but I think there is merit to the fact that if a party is out of control coming in and saying break up this party, instead of just breaking it up, which is the police's responsibility when they come in and have a complaint, again, if we're assigning comparative negligence to something when we're talking about a potential lawsuit later, I think the police can break up a party. they don't have to come in, tell you to break it up, and then leave.

They can escort young people out of a place. They can do breathalizers. They can do what they need to do to make sure that a party actually ends instead of saying this party shouldn't be happening and leave. I don't know that that's necessarily their role there. And then to come in later and say, hey, we told you to do this and you didn't do it. So now you're going to jail. I think they do bear some responsibility.

I don't know if they'd bear all of it, quite frankly, but maybe some. Look, I think this is a very interesting discussion. I think it was an interesting legal aspect of how they're potentially holding a parent responsible for this. Johnson's next court date, by the way, is set for January 30th. This is one I definitely want to keep an eye on and see how it progresses. But listen, I mean, this is different. It is different. And they talk about the seventh arrest.

used to talk about it, how there might be seeing this in other parts of the country now. I don't know. It's just very unusual circumstances. I will tell you it this much. Hopefully they make arrests connected to the shooting. That's number one. I mean, they made a pledge that they're going to arrest anybody who was involved. We shall see. Jeff Wolfe, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it. My pleasure, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast.

You can follow me on X or Instagram. Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.