Police say the suspect followed his former girlfriend’s car from a Cookout parking lot, fired at the vehicle and later hit it from behind.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A Spartanburg man is accused of chasing his former girlfriend’s car through the city, firing shots into the occupied vehicle and crashing into it from behind during a March episode that police say began after he saw her with another man.
Police announced the arrest Friday as they outlined a case that mixes domestic conflict allegations with violent felony charges. Investigators said the woman and her boyfriend were inside the car during the shooting, leading to two attempted murder counts and other charges. Officials have said the investigation is still active, leaving open the possibility of additional evidence, testimony or procedural steps as the case moves through court.
According to Spartanburg police, the investigation began with a March 28 response to an incident involving weapons. Officers said they later contacted the woman who reported that the confrontation had happened earlier near 1507 W.O. Ezell Boulevard. In the statement summarized by police, the woman said she and her boyfriend were at a Cookout on John B. White Sr. Boulevard at about 9:30 p.m. when her ex-boyfriend, Derrick Jarrod Peake Jr., arrived and noticed the two together. She told police that she left the parking lot to avoid a confrontation. What followed, according to the report, was a pursuit that moved from the restaurant area onto John B. White Sr. Boulevard and then toward Blackstock Road, turning what began as an unwanted encounter into a criminal investigation with multiple violent charges.
Investigators said the woman reported that Peake drove beside her on East Blackstock Road in a burgundy Dodge Charger and shouted threats. Police said she told them he then fired about three rounds at her Chevrolet Malibu. Officers said the car showed a bullet hole near the rear wheel, a detail that became one of the clearest physical signs of the episode described in the report. The woman also said that after the shots were fired, Peake intentionally hit the back of her vehicle as she kept driving toward the intersection of East Blackstock Road and W.O. Ezell Boulevard. Police have not publicly described any injuries, and they have not said whether detectives collected shell casings, camera footage or other forensic evidence from the route described by the woman. Those gaps leave some parts of the timeline unresolved in the public record, even as the charging document outlines the core allegations.
The facts released by police frame the case as more than a brief dispute between former partners. The alleged shooting happened with a second person in the car and on a roadway open to other drivers, which broadens the public safety concerns tied to the case. The specific locations named by police also matter. John B. White Sr. Boulevard, East Blackstock Road and W.O. Ezell Boulevard are all places familiar to local drivers, and the route described by investigators suggests the encounter moved quickly from a business parking lot to city streets. Police did not say how long the chase lasted or whether any bystanders called 911 during the event. They also have not said whether the suspect was arrested immediately or later in the investigation. What they did make clear is that detectives treated the complaint seriously enough to seek a series of felony warrants after reviewing the woman’s account and the damage to the vehicle.
Authorities said Peake now faces two counts of attempted murder, two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle and one count of breach of peace of a high and aggravated nature. The mix of charges points to what prosecutors may argue was a deliberate attack that threatened two people at once and extended beyond the gunfire itself. Police said Peake was scheduled for a 2 p.m. bond hearing Thursday at the Spartanburg County Detention Center. As of the public announcement Friday, police had not provided further court records, attorney information or a fuller account of the defendant’s response to the allegations. Those details are likely to become clearer through the bond process and any later hearings in Spartanburg County court.
For residents reading the police account, the sharpest image may be the simplest one: a couple leaving a parking lot to avoid trouble, only to face threats, gunfire and a collision on the road a short time later. The woman’s statement, as relayed by police, describes a sequence in which each attempt to create distance failed. First the couple left the restaurant. Then, police said, the suspect followed. Then, as the woman kept driving, the encounter escalated again. That progression may become central to any future prosecution because it speaks to intent, pursuit and whether the violence was spontaneous or sustained. At this stage, the police summary does not answer every question, but it establishes the core allegation that an emotional confrontation became a dangerous roadway attack involving a firearm and an occupied car.
Police said Friday the investigation was still open, with the next visible step set to come at the bond hearing as the criminal case begins moving through Spartanburg County’s court system.
Author note: Last updated April 10, 2026.
Featured image prompt: Horizontal 1200×630 local-news scene at dusk in Spartanburg, South Carolina, showing a roadside police investigation near W.O. Ezell Boulevard with evidence markers, flashing blue and red lights, a damaged midsize sedan with rear impact damage and a visible bullet hole near the back wheel, roadway signage and fast-food parking lot in the background, realistic editorial style, no logos, no identifiable faces.