Nearly three months after his wife and son were savagely murdered in a still-unsolved double homicide, prominent Lowcountry, South Carolina attorney R. Alexander “Alex” Murdaugh – who remains a person of interest in that ongoing investigation – was wounded in a shooting in Hampton county.
Murdaugh was reportedly airlifted to the Parker’s Emergency and Trauma Center in Savannah, Georgia on Saturday afternoon with at least one gunshot wound in the aftermath of the incident.
Agents of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) were called to the crime scene at the request of the Hampton county sheriff’s office.
“SLED has been requested to investigate a shooting that occurred in Hampton county,” agency spokesman Tommy Crosby confirmed to me on Saturday afternoon.
Crosby declined to identify Murdaugh as the victim of the shooting initially, however multiple local law enforcement sources confirmed the 53-year-old lawyer was the individual who was wounded.
Shortly before 6:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, SLED confirmed the Hampton county case it was investigating “involves Alex Murdaugh.”
“The person involved is Alex Murdaugh,” Crosby confirmed. “Our agents are actively investigating this incident.”
The shooting reportedly took place on Old Salkehatchie Road near Varnville, S.C. – a location which was confirmed by Columbia, S.C. defense attorney Jim Griffin, one of Murdaugh’s lawyers).
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Griffin told reporters at The (Hilton Head, S.C.) Island Packet his client stopped on the side of the road after experiencing “car trouble” while traveling to Charleston, S.C. from his home in Islandton.
“Alex was changing a tire when a car passed him,” Heath Ellison of WCIV TV 4 (ABC – Charleston, S.C.) reported, quoting Griffin. “The vehicle turned around and someone in the car shot him.”
Griffin further told reporter Steve Garrison of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier that the shots were fired “from a truck that had passed Murdaugh on the road and circled back as he was working on his vehicle.”
As of this writing, there is no information available as to any suspect(s) being sought – or apprehended – in connection with the shooting. Again, as soon as such information becomes available, it will be passed along to our readers.
A two-paragraph report published by WCBD TV 2 (NBC – Charleston, S.C.) claimed Murdaugh was “shot in the head.” Several sources close to the Murdaugh family have told this news outlet they “understand that it is a head shot and that it was not self-inflicted.”
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Multiple sources familiar with the shooting said Murdaugh sustained a “superficial head wound.”
Several news outlets reported that 10 shell casings were found on the scene, however, FITSNews sources have not confirmed that.
A statement from the family did not elaborate on the nature or extent of his injuries, although it indicated he was expected to recover from them.
“The Murdaugh family has suffered through more than any one family could ever imagine,” a family spokesman said shortly after 6:00 p.m. EDT. “We expect Alex to recover and ask for your privacy while he recovers.”
As I exclusively reported two months ago, the bodies of 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and her son – 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh – were discovered by Alex Murdaugh on their 1,700-acre “Moselle” hunting property in Colleton and Hampton counties on the evening of June 7, 2021.
“Paul Murdaugh was reportedly killed by a pair of shotgun blasts – one to the chest and another which struck his arm and head,” I reported at the time, citing my network of law enforcement and prosecutorial sources.
This information has since been publicly confirmed by health officials as the cause of Paul Murdaugh’s death.
Maggie Murdaugh was reportedly shot and killed by a semi-automatic rifle at or around the same time her son was killed. Her cell phone was discovered the following day along a rural South Carolina road near where the killings took place.
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As I noted on June 9, 2021, law enforcement and prosecutorial sources with direct knowledge of this investigation indicated Alex Murdaugh had been identified as a “person of interest” in the case – but as I have repeatedly noted he is said to have provided investigators with an “ironclad” alibi for his whereabouts at the time of the killings.
Also, his status as a “person of interest” made sense given he was the one who called 9-1-1 to report the shooting.
SLED is leading the investigation into the double homicide – as well as the investigation into the shooting of Murdaugh on Saturday. Additionally, the agency is leading an investigation into allegations that Murdaugh and other members of his family obstructed justice in the aftermath of a fatal February 2019 boat crash.
News of that inquiry was exclusively reported by this news outlet back in June – four days after the “Moselle” killings.
In the boat crash incident, Murdaugh’s late son was accused of crashing a 17-foot, center console watercraft owned by his father into a bridge piling in Beaufort county, S.C. – resulting in the death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach of Hampton, S.C.
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At the time of his death in June, Paul Murdaugh was facing three felony boating under the influence charges in connection with that crash. Alex Murdaugh and his other son, Buster Murdaugh, were among the parties named in a wrongful death suit filed in connection with the fatal collision.
The investigation into the ‘Murdaugh Murders’ has been shrouded in secrecy – opening the case up to all manner of speculation. That speculation ramped up last week when news broke that a local prosecutor with close ties to the Murdaugh family recused himself from the double homicide case.
The Murdaughs are one of the most influential families in South Carolina – especially in the Palmetto Lowcountry. Two members of the family currently work as attorneys for a powerful regional law firm and three generations of Murdaughs served as solicitor (or district attorney) for a five-county region from 1920-2007.
As a result, the family wields tremendous influence over police, prosecutors, politicians and judges in this five-county region.
Obviously, this news outlet will continue to follow this breaking news story as it continues to develop … stay tuned for updates.
UPDATE …
SLED provides initial details on the shooting …
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: FITSNews)
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children. And yes, he has LOTS of hats (including that 2010 San Francisco Giants’ World Series lid pictured above).
Mandy Matney contributed to this report.
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