Charleston’s mayor announced a citywide crackdown on drunken driving, asserting that’s what led to the recent deaths of two 20-year-old women, though police have not charged either of the two men arrested with that crime.
City police will be stationing DUI checkpoints on the major thoroughfares across Charleston to root out impaired drivers, Mayor William Cogswell announced during a May 7 press conference outside City Hall.
The checkpoints will start this weekend, Cogswell said.
While few details were provided, Charleston Police Chief Chito Walker said the checkpoints will be set up on a day-to-day basis. They will be concentrated during the evening hours, but police will “follow evidence-based data and go from there,” Walker said.
The locations of the checkpoints have not been announced.
The move comes as part of Cogswell’s ongoing initiative aimed at improving safety and livability on King Street, where most of Charleston’s nightlife district is concentrated. He plugged the city’s new rideshare pick up and drop off system, which began May 1, adding that ridesharing should also cut down on drunken driving.
Charleston police have arrested 92 people for drunken driving in the past two months, Cogswell said. That figure is slightly up from the 90 people who were charged with a DUI during the same timeframe in 2023, according to data provided by the department.
Impaired driving was the second-most booked charge at the Charleston County jail in 2023, according to an annual release from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. The only charge that more people were booked for was unlawful carrying of a firearm, which is no longer illegal.
Cogswell said the initiative is a response to the “tragic and ultimately preventable deaths,” of Arianna Gamber and Lizzy Zito, who were walking along Morrison Drive near the pedestrian entrance to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge late last month when they were struck in the early morning hours.
Two men, Seth Alan Gilbert William Carlson and Max David Gentilin, have been arrested in connection to the April 28 deaths. Both drivers — who police believe struck the women 30 minutes apart — left without calling for help, authorities say.
Carlson, who police reported was captured on video striking the women at 1:12 a.m., allegedly smelled of alcohol, according to a witness who made contact with him after Carlson crashed his Chevrolet truck into a ditch in West Ashley. He faces two counts of reckless vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
Gentilin allegedly ran over the women after Carlson. Charleston police reported he was seen on video just south of the scene at 1:42 a.m. and ditching a dark grey 2010 Acura TL at the Morrison Yard apartments minutes later.
He is charged with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident causing death. No information that points to Gentilin being intoxicated has been made public.
Cars drive by a memorial adorned with flowers and other items on the side of East Bay Street right after the on-ramp for the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge on April 29, 2024, in Charleston. The memorial was erected for two 20-year-olds, identified as Lizzy Zito and Arianna Gamber, who were killed in a hit-and-run near the location.
Neither driver was arrested until days later, which could make any allegation of drunken driving difficult to prove. Additional charges are “still on the table,” according to the Charleston Police Lt. Anthony Gibson.
“The allegation and the suspicion of impaired driving is different than proving it,” Gibson said.
Cogswell said the fatalities are an example of why the city needs additional measures to prevent drunken driving.
“Clearly, clearly, when you have two suspected drunk drivers hitting these poor women, it’s not enough,” Cogswell said.
The deaths call into question the lack of pedestrian-friendly infrastructure along Morrison Drive.
Charleston spokeswoman Deja Knight McMillan said city staffers have been meeting with S.C. Department of Transportation officials to discuss improvements along the state-owned road, but that the drunken driving crackdown is “something we can enact right now that can effect change.”
The families of both victims are still reeling. Both women would have turned 21 this month.
Zito studied psychology at the College of Charleston and was set to graduate May 11. Her parents still plan to attend the ceremony, her father Frank Zito said.
She loved animals and decided to work as a veterinary technician at an animal clinic near her hometown of Simpsonville while finishing her degree online. She’s now buried nearby, he said.
Zito and Gamber, who was also from Simpsonville, were visiting a friend in Charleston when they were killed.
“I can forgive a real accident, but to leave those two girls lying in the street like a piece of meat, I would never forgive that,” Frank Zito said at Gentilin’s May 2 bond hearing.
Police are asking anyone with information that may be pertinent to the investigation to contact the Charleston Police Department Traffic Unit at 843-965-4084 or contact Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry at 843-554-1111.
