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Richland County Sheriff's deputies, including Allen Derrick, center, comfort a grieving family member after she arrives at a home on Laredo Drive where an exchange of gunfire this morning killed the subject of a search warrant and injured a deputy.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 27, 2008
Suspect slain, deputy wounded
A warrant, a knock, a death
Sheriff defends officers’ actions in drug case
By JAMES T. HAMMOND - jhammond@thestate.com
Pine Valley “is no different than any other neighborhood. It’s just typical of some of the stuff we have throughout Richland County, in that we have people who sell drugs. We deal with this problem every day. It’s just unfortunate that today one of our officers was shot and the suspect was killed.”
— Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott
A shooting that left a suspect dead and a deputy injured lived up to what many in law enforcement believe to be true — issuing warrants is one of their most dangerous responsibilities.
Larry Darnell Bosket II, 34, who was a suspect in a drug investigation, was shot and killed by a Richland County deputy at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Laredo Drive home where he lived.
Authorities say Deputy Marcus Brown fired his weapon after Bosket shot him in the arm.
The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating, which is standard procedure in officer-related incidents.
Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said Bosket was dead at the scene. An autopsy showed he died of a gunshot wound to the head, Watts said. He said Bosket also was shot once in the abdomen and once in the shoulder. Toxicology results are pending.
Reports indicate Brown knocked on the door of the modest Pine Valley-area home before he and fellow officers exercised a search warrant authorizing them to enter.
When no one responded, they forced the door open and went in.
Sheriff’s Department officials obtained a warrant after surveillance videotapes showed a man, believed to be Bosket, selling marijuana to high-school students on nearby Broad River Road on previous occasions.
When officers entered the house, the suspect burst from a bedroom in the back of the house, firing a handgun that was at least a .357 Magnum or larger caliber, said Sheriff Leon Lott.
A large bullet ripped the flesh of Brown’s left arm, smashing bone.
Brown — an eight-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department and its Special Weapons and Tactics team — returned fire, killing Bosket immediately, Lott said.
“He has some bone damage in his arm, and he’ll have a long recovery time, but he’ll be able to recover,” Lott said of Brown.
Bosket had a criminal record dating back to 1991, including several drug convictions.
Lott said his officers’ actions were “appropriate.”
“I’ve looked at what they did this morning, and they followed all of our procedures as they should have,” Lott said.
Richland County deputies do not serve warrants alone. Brown was accompanied Wednesday by uniformed and narcotics officers, as well as a K-9 dog unit.
Lott said officers were aware of the potential danger.
“I think they knew someone was in the house. There were cars in the driveway, and they felt like he was home. They knocked, then they forced the door in,” Lott said.
“We actually have photographs of him doing a drug deal, selling to high-school students up on Broad River Road,” Lott said. “That’s why we got the search warrant to enter his house.”
Investigators found “pounds” of marijuana in the house, Lott said. The exact amount was being determined.
The suspect’s wife and a child were in the house when officers forced the door open, Lott said.
“We’ve treated (the family members) like victims in this case. They’ve lost a husband and a father.”
A QUIET PLACE
The shooting that shattered the tranquil northwest Columbia community near Columbia High School was especially poignant for Lott, who lived just two blocks away on Ramsgate Drive for 23 years, raised three daughters there and has many close friends in the neighborhood.
“That was my first home,” Lott said. “Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when that neighborhood was built, it was known as a law-enforcement neighborhood. You had SLED agents, sheriff’s deputies and Highway Patrol — all types of law enforcement lived there. Many of them still do.
“It’s not a neighborhood you typically have this kind of problem. They are a very active neighborhood in trying to keep it clean and safe, to keep the crime out. It’s a good neighborhood.
“There were some gang issues and drug issues going on in the neighborhood. People had contacted me personally about looking at those issues,” Lott said. “With this guy, we had word that he was selling drugs, leading to the surveillance photos.”
Still, neighborhood leaders who have called on county officials for assistance with various problems characterized the shooting as an aberration.
“This can happen in all kinds of neighborhoods,” said Marcia Lucius, a former county planning commission member who has lived there 32 years. “I hate it happened, but it’s not something to make me move.”
James Whitmire, former president of the Pine Valley-Kingswood Neighborhood Association, likewise called it an isolated incident.
“This is largely a safe, quiet neighborhood,” he said. “I don’t feel our community is any less safe and secure.”
But Wednesday’s shooting showed the presence of police officers in a neighborhood does not guarantee it will be crime-free; the shooting took place two homes away from the residence of a city police officer.
Lott was at the scene soon after the shooting.
“I still keep up with everybody in the neighborhood who we were friends with,” he said. “I probably get an e-mail daily from at least one of them.”
Staff writers Jeff Wilkinson, Tim Flach, Ishmael Tate and Lee Higgins contributed. Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.
