Background: The Walmart located on Whiskey Road in Aiken, South Carolina (Google Maps). Inset left: Stephen Foreman (South Carolina Department of Corrections). Inset right: Ashton Rickard (GoFundMe).
A South Carolina man faces a lengthy prison term after being convicted for a shocking incident where he shot a 13-year-old girl in a Walmart. This seemingly random act of violence has left a community in disbelief.
Stephen Foreman, 35, received a 28-year prison sentence, with provisions for ongoing mental health treatment within the South Carolina Department of Corrections, according to court records accessed by Law&Crime. In addition, he was given a five-year sentence for possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
Foreman entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill to the charge of attempted murder in the shooting of the young girl, Ashton Rickard.
The incident, as detailed in a civil lawsuit filed by Ashley Rickard, the mother of the victim, occurred on June 7, 2023. The mother and daughter were shopping at a Walmart located on Whiskey Road in Aiken, South Carolina, when Foreman approached them and, without any provocation, opened fire using a Colt 1911.
The .45 caliber bullet inflicted severe injuries, tearing through Ashton’s body and embedding near her lower spine. This caused significant damage to multiple internal organs and bones, as well as substantial blood loss, according to the lawsuit filed in April 2024.
In the immediate aftermath, Ashton remained conscious, acutely aware of the gravity of her injuries, her mother recounted. A GoFundMe campaign, organized by her grandmother to assist with mounting medical expenses, describes how Ashton was attacked by a total stranger.
The civil lawsuit was also filed against Stephanie Foreman, Stephen Foreman’s mother, and it was her Colt handgun that the since-condemned defendant used in the attack, per the lawsuit obtained by Augusta, Georgia-based CBS affiliate WRDW. Ashley Rickard maintained in the filing that Stephanie Foreman “unreasonably entrusted or unreasonably failed to secure” the gun.
But it wasn’t just that. The mother of the injured child held that Stephanie Foreman knew her son had a history of mental illness. During one 2019 incident in particular, Stephen Foreman reportedly used a sawed-off shotgun “to assault and hold hostage her, his father, and brother in their home, forcing his brother to tie their family up with black tape.”
He then “broke into his brother’s gun safe and took several handguns from the home,” before driving away, the lawsuit continues. After he surrendered to police the next day, Stephanie Foreman initially helped officers “only later to refuse to cooperate and testify truthfully about the events,” preventing the man from being “appropriately punished for his violent crime,” Ashley Rickard said.
The civil lawsuit is seeking damages against Stephen Foreman and Stephanie Foreman. According to WRDW, as of Wednesday, the lawsuit was temporarily paused.
