SC driver charged with reckless homicide after death of highway patrolman
The man who hit and killed a state highway patrol officer while the officer was conducting a traffic stop in Orangeburg County has been charged with reckless homicide, the Orangeburg County sheriff announced at a press conference Friday.
Sheriff Leroy Ravenell called the actions of Anthony Aydlette, 45, reckless disregard for others and said that he should’ve never been behind the wheel of a car. Aydlette hit S.C. Trooper First Class Dennis D. Ricks along Interstate 26, near mile marker 165, with a box truck traveling 60 miles per hour in the early hours of Aug. 10.
Ricks died at the hospital from his injuries days later. He was the first state patrol officer to die in the line of duty in eight years.
“As law enforcement officers, we are asked to be protectors, to be strong, brave and fearless,” Col. Christopher Williamson, highway patrol commander, said during Ricks’ funeral Aug. 20. “But today, it’s not about being strong or fearless. Today is about feeling the gravity of this loss, to honor who he was as a man and as a trooper, to acknowledge the impact he had made on so many people’s lives, and the unending love he had for his family.”
On a night where Ricks “did everything right,” Ravenell said, Aydlette, the man who hit him, “did everything wrong.” The 45-year-old was driving with a suspended license and had been flagged several times by law enforcement over the last decade; seven license suspensions, six accidents (four of which were his fault) and at least two other traffic violations, according to Ravenell.
The box truck he’d been driving that night was rented by a family member, Ravenell told reporters Friday. The new charge comes after Aydlette was arrested for driving under suspension following the crash. Aydlette repeatedly lied about the events of the night until yesterday, Ravenell said.
“His story changed from the night of the incident until yesterday, but we knew through all of these things that we saw that his story was just that. A story,” Ravenell said. Aydlette did stop to help Ricks after the crash, the sheriff said.
Reckless homicide carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $5,000 fine, according to the sheriff’s department.
