Deputy kills man accused of carjacking, causing crashes in highway chase, sheriff says
A man accused of committing multiple crimes Sunday was shot and killed by a deputy he was charging toward following a violent car chase that damaged at least 10 cars, Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said.
The crime spree that included a carjacking, multiple crashes, and a high-speed chase began at about 5:30 p.m. in Laurens County, Foster told The State on Monday.
Phillip John Walden was killed, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said. The 40-year-old Taylors resident was shot multiple times in the upper body, according to Fisher.
Walden appeared to have a disabled vehicle and was seen walking on Interstate 26 when a couple that Foster called Good Samaritans stopped to offer help.
“That’s when he produced a weapon and tried to take their car,” Foster said.
While that couple drove off, Walden returned to his vehicle and took off down I-26, according to Foster.
Soon after, 911 calls began coming into emergency dispatch about an accident, Foster said.
The sheriff said the accused carjacker had wrecked his vehicle and rolled it down an embankment near the 60 mile marker, which is close to the Laurens-Newberry county line.
More people stopped and tried to offer assistance, and the man assaulted them and tried to take their vehicles, according to Foster.
While first responders were on their way to the crash, more 911 calls came in about a man who was bloody and armed with a weapon, Foster said. Descriptions of the weapon varied, as some callers said it was a knife, others claimed it was scissors, and some said it was a gun, according to the sheriff.
The man tried and failed to carjack two other vehicles, before he got access to another car and drove off, Foster said.
The original driver of that vehicle escaped and ran away, as the carjacker headed toward Columbia, according to Foster.
A Newberry County deputy spotted the stolen vehicle near Exit 72 on I-26 and attempted to stop it, but the car sped off, Foster said.
The speeding car hit several other vehicles, according to the sheriff. Deputies told Foster the collisions were intentional, as was the carjacker’s collision with a second deputy, which drove the patrol vehicle into a guard rail.
After wrecking the deputy, the carjacker hit more vehicles before getting off I-26 at Exit 97, which is the junction with U.S. 176 in Richland County. The carjacker then returned to the interstate, now heading back toward Newberry, according to Foster.
At Exit 91, the connection with Columbia Avenue in Lexington County, the carjacker again left I-26 and went into a parking lot for a Taco Bell/gas station and hit a trailer and another vehicle, Foster said.
The carjacker then crossed over the highway and returned to I-26, but was now heading west in the eastbound lanes, according to the sheriff.
Both a sheriff’s deputy and a South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper got in front of the carjacker’s vehicle, and he rammed the deputy, Foster said.
The deputy was able to divert the carjacker’s vehicle into a jersey barrier on I-26, disabling the car and ending the high-speed chase, according to Foster.
But the confrontation was not over.
While both the deputy and Highway Patrol trooper exited their cars, the man also got out of the carjacked vehicle and started moving toward them, the sheriff said.
The law enforcement officers used Tasers, but the man was not incapacitated and then charged at the Newberry County deputy, who then shot Walden, according to Foster.
“I don’t know if he was armed, but no shots were fired at the deputy,” Foster said.
The man died at the scene, according to Foster.
The sheriff did not know how many shots the deputy fired, but he said the weapon was turned over to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which is leading the investigation into the shooting.
The deputy has been placed on administrative leave until SLED’s investigation is completed, Foster said.
At least 10 vehicles were hit by the carjacker, not counting the two patrol vehicles, according to Foster. Two people were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, Foster said. Further information on their conditions was not available.
No deputies or Highway Patrol troopers were injured in the 40-plus mile chase, according to the sheriff.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and this is the largest crime scene I’ve had to deal with,” Foster said. “It’s still a fluid situation several hours later.”
A stretch of I-26 was closed for hours following the crash near Exit 91, according to South Carolina Department of Transportation.
The incident remains under investigation and officers are working to determine the man’s motives beginning with the first incident in Laurens County that sparked the chase, according to Foster.
This was the 26th incident this year in South Carolina in which a law enforcement officer was involved in a shooting, according to SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby. In 2020, there were 49 shootings involving law enforcement officers in South Carolina; and one involved the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office, according to SLED.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
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This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 9:42 AM.
