ROCK HILL, S.C. — Zachary East Elias is a 28-year-old man who had no criminal record in South Carolina until detectives said he walked into a Rock Hill smoke shop in December and opened fire.
Officers said on Dec. 4, Elias shot and killed Emad Thabet Saadalla, and seriously injured his wife, who were both inside Budiman’s Smokeshop & Art Gallery.
The Rock Hill Police Department said he also shot and killed 27-year-old Celci Johnson who’d just started working there.
“The investigation revealed that the defendant had consumed a psychedelic substance purchased from the smoke shop earlier that day,” Detective Robert Smith said. “During the shooting, the defendant made incoherent statements and walked into the back of the shop looking for additional victims.”
Channel 9 went to the smoke shop on Cherry Road to inquire about that psychedelic substance police said Elias purchased and employees declined comment.
However, Rock Hill police told Channel 9 the product was an edible chocolate bar.
They wouldn’t release the brand name – or confirm if its contents were tested – but experts said psychedelic drugs, also known as hallucinogens, can contain powerful substances from plants and fungi.
And some of them, like psilocybin and LSD, are illegal under federal law.
“Because those two are illegal substances, any type of amount will pose a risk,” Alison Hurayt, with Keystone Substance Abuse Services, told Channel 9.
Hurayt said they “alter your state of mind, your perception of time, your perception of where you are…any amount would be too much to take.”
She said for the most part, no one is policing what’s sold in smoke shops and it’s possible for illegal substances to make their way into these stores.
“A lot of times, no one is checking because most of those types of products are not going through the FDA, so no one is regulating them,” Hurayt said. “There is a risk of you getting something you didn’t even know was in there.”
‘Inherent risk involved’
Channel 9 took these concerns to South Carolina representative Heath Sessions who serves on the House Medical Affairs Committee.
He said he’s working with law enforcement to identify substances in drugs sold over the counter that are causing problems but may not currently be illegal.
“In working with local law enforcement – if we can identify the active chemicals that are psychedelics, that are doing harm to our citizens, we can have the Department of Health recommend a scheduling of those drugs thus making them illegal,” Sessions said.
He also acknowledged truth in labeling is a real issue and the best defense is to be leery of products that have little oversight.
“If you’re gonna go to these shops and try to consume what we think are legal products, understand that there is inherent risk involved and they’re not heavily regulated,” Sessions said.
“We just caution kids and adults to stay away from anything they don’t know what it’s going to cause in their bodies,” Hurayt said.
Emad Thabet’s wife, who survived the Rock Hill shooting that killed him in December, didn’t want to compromise the case by talking on camera.
However, she told Channel 9 there’s no excuse for the shooting and she doesn’t believe a chocolate bar caused the crime. She said Zachary Elias should be held 100 percent responsible for the lives he impacted that night.
Elias is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
He’s still in the York County Jail, with no bond, awaiting trial.
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