For the third time this week, an officer-involved shooting has taken place in South Carolina …
This time the “shots fired” call came from Summerville, S.C. – a town of around 45,000 located just northwest of Charleston.
According to our law enforcement sources, an officer of the Summerville police department responded to “a suspicious person call in the White Gables subdivision” early Friday morning. Upon arriving on the scene, the officer located a vehicle occupied by two men.
“As the officer approached, the vehicle accelerated, hitting the officer,” our source said. “The officer fired at the vehicle, hitting both occupants.”
The vehicle sped away from the scene but crashed shortly thereafter. The two men inside the vehicle were taking into police custody and are being treated at a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries. The officer is also being treated for non-life threatening injuries, we’re told.
Thom Berry, spokesman for the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), confirmed to us that the statewide agency was called in to investigate the incident just before 3:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday morning. That’s a matter of protocol in forty-five of the Palmetto State’s forty-six counties (Richland County being the notable exception).
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[/timed-content-server]This investigation could wind up being fairly cut and dried. Berry told reporter Angie Jackson of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier that there was “video footage of the incident” available for SLED to review, although it’s not immediately clear if we’re talking dash cam or body camera footage.
The Summerville incident was the 21st officer-involved shooting in South Carolina so far this year. Last year, South Carolina set a new record with 49 officer involved shootings.
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