Family, friends celebrate officer’s life

December marked four years since an Aiken native and Public Safety officer’s life was taken in the line of duty by a man who is now spending life in prison. The day he died, Dec. 21, is the day his family and friends like to celebrate the life of Master Public Safety Officer Scotty Richardson.

Richardson was shot during a routine traffic stop on Brandt Court by Stephon Carter, Dec. 20, 2011. He died early the next day, on Dec. 21, at an Augusta hospital at the age of 33.

“Scott was very special to me and it was a great loss to everyone when he was taken from us,” said Pat Richardson, his mother. “But we always like to honor his day on Dec. 21. It’s a day for us to celebrate his wonderful life and all the beautiful memories he left with us.”

Outside Pat and her husband Richard Richardson’s home on East Pine Log Road, there is a light display unlike others seen around Aiken during Christmas.

It’s shaped like a badge, and spelled out in blue lights are the word “officer” and the number “342” which was Officer Richardson’s badge number.

“A Beech Island man made that for us, and when I saw it for the first time, it broke my heart,” his mother explained. “It’s very special to me, but it really belongs to his boys.”

When Richardson died he left behind his wife Amelyn Richardson and three young boys, Zander, 9, Chase, 8 and Maddox, 5.

“He was a good son and a good daddy, and he loved his children,” Pat Richardson explained. “The youngest of his boys, who was just a baby when his daddy died, sometimes asks me, ‘Why did my daddy have to die?’ I just tell him that his daddy’s job was to go get the bad guys, and one day one of the bad guys got him.”

She said his three boys continue to visit their dad’s grave.

“It’s a tragedy he doesn’t get to be here to watch his boys grow up, but I want it to be said that they have the most wonderful mother, Amelyn. She lives each day as if he is still here,” she said, choking back tears.

Richardson grew up in Aiken. After graduating South Aiken High School and USC Aiken, he began his career with the Aiken Department of Public Safety as a cadet in 1999, working his way up to the rank of public safety officer in February 2005.

“You could not be around Scotty and not be drawn to him,” said Lt. Jake Mahoney, with the department. “You couldn’t not like him. He had a great personality, a very humble demeanor.”

Richardson and his family lived in Lexington County, and he commuted to work each day.

“Scotty was an Aiken boy,” Mahoney said. “He could have easily taken a job up there in Lexington, or found a job with another agency, but he was committed to this department and this community. He chose to have a career as an officer because he loved to help others.”

At the time, Richardson was the first Aiken Public Safety officer killed in the line of duty since 1950.

“He wanted to be an FBI man one day, really and truly,” Pat Richardson said. Since “he died, the whole City of Aiken has really been so good to us over the years. It’s the guys he worked with, and everybody who loved him who keeps his spirit alive.”

She said Scotty was such a humble guy that he would not have believed the attention and support he got from the community after he passed.

“I never heard anyone say anything bad about Scotty, and you can’t say that about everybody,” Mahoney said. “You never heard someone mention Scotty in a bad light. He just wasn’t that kind of guy – it just didn’t happen.”

Last year, Stephon Carter, 22, pleaded guilty to shooting Richardson to death and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In a statement in court before Carter’s sentencing, Pat said Scott could have helped Carter and would have, if Carter had given him the chance.

“Scott didn’t even have his gun out that night,” she said. “Carter shot him in pure, cold-blooded murder. No one can understand how a person feels until something like this happens to you. And I wouldn’t wish it to happen to anybody.”

She said now she just wants to celebrate his life and the wonderful times he gave her, his family and friends.

Barely a month after Richardson’s death, a second Aiken officer, Master Cpl. Sandy Rogers, was shot and killed while investigating a suspicious vehicle in Eustis Park.

Joshua Tremaine Jones pleaded guilty in January 2014 but mentally ill to her killing.

“We also remember Sandy and her life, which was taken away way too soon, as well,” Pat Richardson said.

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 10:46 AM.