‘Something from a movie’: West Columbia man charged with attempted murder of officer (+ video)

The man accused of shooting a West Columbia police officer Tuesday afternoon has been charged with attempted murder and faces up to 30 years in prison, according to State Law Enforcement Division officials.

William Kernan, 51, of 320 Hudson St., was charged with resisting arrest, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and attempted murder after he shot Officer James Holland in the head outside Kernan’s West Columbia home. Police officials said Holland was in “good condition” in an area hospital Wednesday morning.

Records stretching back to 2004 show city police have arrested Kernan several times before. On Tuesday, the officers were at Kernan’s house to serve a bench warrant after he failed to appear in court for a city noise violation, according to Capt. Scott Morrison, a department spokesman.

Kernan on Wednesday was denied bond for that bench warrant and will remain in jail, according to Maj. John Allard of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, which manages the county jail.

West Columbia Chief Dennis Tyndall said Kernan’s home, in the historic New Brookland Mill Village, was recently condemned after it caught on fire. Kernan reportedly continued to live in the home, which no longer had power.

Incident reports dating back to November 2014 show that Kernan had been using a generator to provide electricity to his home. Neighbors were disturbed by the machine’s noise and filed complaints against him. Many wished to remain anonymous in the reports for fear that Kernan would retaliate against them.

Brandi and Michael Moore, who live across the street from Kernan, said they saw Tuesday’s entire incident play out from their front porch. “It was something you see from a movie,” Brandi Moore said.

Moore said she, her husband and her young daughter had just returned from lunch and were working in the yard when they saw three West Columbia police officers drive up to Kernan’s residence.

“(Kernan) was outside on his roof, and (the officers) stood in the neighbor’s yard trying to talk to him and get him down,” Moore said. “He kept saying, ‘I want a jury trial, I want a jury trial,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, here we go. It’s going to get bad.’”

Moore said Kernan then went back into his home through a second-story window and barricaded himself on the top floor. She saw officers enter the home through the front door then come back out saying that the stairwell was barricaded.

“They went back in the house, and there was a bunch of hollering that we heard and then we heard the gunshot,” Moore said.

According to a SLED arrest warrant, Kernan fired at Holland with a 12-gauge shotgun. The shot went through a wall and struck Holland in the head, Tyndall said following the incident Tuesday.

Moore said she saw Holland open one of the second-story windows and escape to the roof, pressing a rag to his head. That same blood-drenched rag could still be seen on the roof of Kernan’s home a day after the incident.

“I have done a lot of hunting in my life, and I have never seen anything that saturated with blood,” Michael Moore said. “It was insane.”

As Holland sat on the roof, Moore said he retrieved a ladder from his back yard so that Holland could get down safely as other emergency and law enforcement officials arrived at the scene.

Kernan surrendered several hours later without incident, Tyndall said.

Holland and the other officers were wearing bulletproof vests at the time of the shooting under department policy for patrol deputies, Morrison said. He also said that since Kernan was known to have resisted arrest before, the officers proceeded with caution.

Several incident reports have been filed with the West Columbia Police Department since November 2004 in which Kernan was the suspect for disorderly conduct, making threats against city officials and threatening to set himself on fire in front of the police department and shooting himself.

A SLED background check revealed that Kernan has been charged with 10 violations of city ordinances since May 2014. He also has been charged with resisting arrest, several open-container violations and motor vehicle violations. He also served time on several charges of marijuana possession.

Tax records show Kernan has lived at that residence for 16 years. The home is a few blocks away from the Garnet River Walk apartments, a popular off-campus University of South Carolina student housing complex.

The Moores said that with Kernan out of the neighborhood, at least temporarily, they can breathe a sigh of relief.

Kernan was a source of much strife for neighbors, often threatening them or throwing trash in their yards, Brandi Moore said. According to Lexington County court records, Moore filed a restraining order against Kernan after he continued to threaten and harass her and her kids.

“If he is crazy enough to shoot at a police officer there’s no telling what he could do to anybody else if they are walking down the street and he gets the urge,” Michael Moore said. “We don’t have to worry about him anymore, and it can go back to start being quiet.”

An attorney with the Setzler and Scott law firm who represented Kernan in a 2007 zoning board case could not be reached for comment about her former client Wednesday. Police were uncertain who Kernan’s current attorney is.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 10:01 AM with the headline "‘Something from a movie’: West Columbia man charged with attempted murder of officer (+ video)."