Man with ‘wooden stake’ charged deputy who shot and killed him, Richland Co. sheriff says
A Columbia man armed with a wooden stake was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer after he ignored multiple commands and charged at the deputy, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Sunday.
Irvin D. Moorer-Charley, 34, was killed Saturday night, according to Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford.
At about 6 p.m. Saturday, deputies responded to Heyward Brockington Road to a report of domestic violence involving a weapon, according to the sheriff’s department. That’s in Columbia, in the area between Monticello and Fairfield roads.
When the first deputy arrived on the scene, he was met outside the home by Moorer-Charley’s mother and some other family members who said they had been attacked and Moorer-Charley was still in the house, Lott said at a news conference.
Almost immediately after that, Moorer-Charley came out, armed with a wooden stake, Lott said. The deputy, and another who soon arrived, believed the weapon was a knife, according to Lott.
“Some people called it a stick, it’s not a stick, it didn’t come from a tree,” Lott said. “It’s like an arm of a chair maybe, where it has a handle and goes down to a sharp point. He had that in his hand.”
What body-cam video shows
A brief clip from the deputy’s body camera, which the sheriff showed at the news conference, showed him repeatedly telling Moorer-Charley to drop the weapon. But Moorer-Charley kept approaching the deputy, who had a weapon drawn, even as the deputy was backing up and a woman walked toward Moorer-Charley in what appeared to be an effort to get him to stop, the video shows.
Lott said the second deputy pulled his Taser and attempted to use it to subdue the man. But that did not work because the Taser failed to pierce Moorer-Charley’s skin, Rutherford said at the news conference.
“Almost immediately after he deployed his Taser that’s when Mr. Charley ran at the deputy with the wooden stake in his hands. And the deputy fired,” Lott said.
Four shots were fired, hitting Moorer-Charley in the heart and liver, according to Rutherford.
“It was a very close encounter, the last shot was probably less than 3 feet away,” Lott said. “This whole incident happened within a minute and 47 seconds. It was very quickly.”
Activists dispute account
The South Carolina Black Activist Coalition said it demands accountability after Moorer-Charley’s death, and it disputed several facts about the shooting presented by Lott and Rutherford. The coalition also held a news conference Sunday involving members of the group and the family of Moorer-Charley.
Both Lott and Rutherford used their own news conference to counter those claims as well as rumors circulating about the shooting. Lott said, and Rutherford confirmed, that Moorer-Charley was not shot 10 times, he was not shot in the back, and he was not wearing handcuffs when he was shot.
There were bullets removed from Moorer-Charley’s back, but they entered his body from the front, according to Rutherford.
Lott also said that Moorer-Charley was not tased multiple times before the shooting.
The sheriff said that the entire incident was captured on body-cam, but other than the brief clip, he has no plans to share that video with the public.
“I think it would be disrespectful to the community and also to Mr. Charley’s family to show this publicly at this point,” Lott said. “The coroner has looked at it, the solicitor is going to see it later today. Various organizations in our community have seen it.
“Tomorrow if the family is willing or wants to, then we’ll show it to the family. It’s a very graphic video, it’s just not something everybody needs to see. I think the people that need to see it is going to see it.”
Shooting investigation
Lott said the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office will decide if the deputy’s actions were justifiable.
The sheriff’s department conducted an investigation on its own. It did not ask the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to take charge, as is common for many other law enforcement agencies in South Carolina when an officer is involved in a shooting.
Just one deputy fired his gun, according to Lott. Deputy Zachary Hentz feared for his life when Moorer-Charley charged him and opened fire, the sheriff’s department said.
It was the first time a Richland County deputy shot and killed somebody in the line of duty since 2013, the sheriff said.
“That’s a long time. I hope there’s many more years before we have to do it again,” Lott said. “This is a sad situation for everybody involved.”
While Lott said it appears that Moorer-Charley was having a mental health crisis, that was not the situation his deputies were responding to.
“This was not put out to us as a mental health call. We received a 911 call for a domestic situation involving someone with a knife, with a weapon,” Lott said. “We all need to do a better job addressing mental health. But also we need to protect our community and protect our deputies. We put our deputies in a very bad situation when they have to respond to incidents like this. They can’t lose their life.
“We can’t expect these deputies to go out here and be killed, they have to protect (themselves). That’s what that deputy did yesterday. He protected (himself). He went home to his family last night. Unfortunately Mr. Charley didn’t. ... We feel for the family. This was not something we created.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREThis is a breaking news story
In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.
This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 2:57 PM.
