Florida man charged with murder of SC officer has violent history with cops, records show
A day after a law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty at a South Carolina airport a suspect was charged with multiple crimes, including murder, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
In addition to being accused of murdering Airport Public Safety Officer Jackson Ryan Winkeler, James Edward Bell was charged Monday with discharging a firearm into a vehicle and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, arrest warrants show.
The 37-year-old Homestead, Florida, man is locked up at the Florence County Detention Center, according to SLED. Bell was already being held at the detention center on a charge of armed robbery with a deadly weapon, and no bond has been set on any of the charges, jail records show.
Court records show he has a criminal history that includes violent incidents involving law enforcement.
The shooting happened Sunday morning on Florence Regional Airport property, SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby told The State.
Bell shot Winkeler, 26, during a traffic stop, according to arrest warrants.
When other law enforcement officers arrived, Bell had fled the scene, but they found Winkeler on the ground outside his patrol vehicle and his department-issued weapon missing, arrest warrants show.
Another 9mm handgun that did not belong to the officer was found near his body, along with more than 30 spent shell casings, according to the warrants. That gun was out of ammunition, and a bullet hole was discovered near the driver’s side mirror of Winkeler’s patrol vehicle, warrants show.
Bell was tracked down near S.C. 52, and was in possession of Winkeler’s weapon as well as an ammo magazine that matched the gun found near the shooting, according to arrest warrants.
Information on a motive for the shooting was not available, and there was no word if Bell was alone in the 2014 Chrysler 200 when Winkeler pulled over the vehicle.
The shooting remains under investigation by SLED.
Bell has an extensive criminal record dating back more than two decades and has spent years behind bars in Florida, court records show.
In August 1998, he spent 60 days in jail on convictions for grand theft auto, two counts of car burglary, and resisting an officer without violence, according to court records.
Bell was sentenced to 364 days behind bars in June 1999 for strong-arm robbery and trespass charges, per court records.
In March 2001, he served a 30-day sentence for two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer, one count of fleeing/attempted eluding of law enforcement and resisting an officer with violence, records show.
He had been released for less than two months when when Bell stole a car and tried to escape from law enforcement in May 2001, according to records. He served 14 years, two months and a week in prison after being convicted on four counts of grand theft auto, fleeing law enforcement at high speed with no regard of safety, burglary and assault on a occupied structure, records show.
Bell had no criminal history in South Carolina prior to the Sunday morning shooting, according to a SLED records check.
Winkeler’s death was the first officer-involved shooting in South Carolina in 2020, after 45 incidents were reported in 2019, according to SLED.
A funeral service will be held for Winkeler at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Florence Center, according to his obituary posted by Cooper Undertaking Company Inc. Pyerian Baptist Church in Latta will hold a visitation from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, according to the funeral home.
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This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 8:26 AM.
