Federal authorities arrest suspect in central Columbia

A suspect with a long criminal history was arrested Tuesday morning after a no-knock search warrant in central Columbia.

Malcolm Redmon, 31, was taken into custody by federal agents on three drug-related charges involving cocaine. The bust happened at a home on the 400 block of Sanford Avenue around 6 a.m. Columbia police also had officers from the vice, narcotics and organized crime unit.

Redmon has an extensive criminal past, including six months of home arrest for a 2012 fight outside Boone Tavern in downtown Columbia that ended in gunshots.

Redmon was also accused of shooting two people near Park Avenue and Fifth Street in 2007. There were supposedly dozens of witnesses, but only two of them came forward and then backed out of testifying. Prosecutors later had to drop charges.

Court documents claim Redmon was a possible target inside Chuck E. Cheeses, when bullets flew through the popular restaurant near the Columbia mall in early 2012.

And Redmon was also accused of shooting a woman in the back after a late-night party off East Broadway in 2000.