Richland County standoff ends with fatal officer involved shooting

A four-and-a-half-hour-long stand off between Richland County deputies and a heavily armed suspect ended Monday night when the suspect shot himself twice then pointed a gun at a deputy, Richland County Sheriff’s Lt. Curtis Wilson said.

deputies responded to a domestic dispute at 2110 Wash Levar Road near Peak at about 5 p.m. and found the suspect barricaded in his home, heavily armed, and heavily medicated, said Wilson.

Deputies tried to negotiate with the suspect for four hours. The suspect was pointing a gun at the deputies, telling them to shoot him. As tensions grew, the deputies elected to shoot the suspect with a bean bag to neutralize the situation, Wilson said.

“We don’t know what he was on, he wasn’t listening to us at all,” Wilson said. “He kept telling us to shoot him.”

The bean bag did not deter the suspect, Wilson said.

After the suspect was shot, he proceeded to pick his gun up and shoot himself twice and then he pointed the gun back at the deputy. The deputy shot the suspect again, this time with his service weapon, and killed him.

“It took a long time for it to escalate to this,” Wilson said. “They exercised a lot of patience with a man who threatened to shoot them.”

The suspect was pronounced dead at Palmetto Health Richland Medical Center.

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Richland County standoff ends with fatal officer involved shooting."