Widow of Florence officer urges state to change how it investigates police shootings
It was days before a frustrated Allison Carraway learned who was investigating the fatal shooting of her husband, Florence Police Sgt. Terrance Carraway, the widow told a state Senate panel Tuesday.
And it took nearly two months for three Richland County Sheriff’s Department investigators to brief her on their investigation into the Oct. 3 shooting of seven law enforcement officers in Florence, including her husband, Carraway said.
She told senators she felt abandoned, left searching for answers about who shot her husband, how the investigation was progressing and what she should do next. “I felt as if we were pushed to the side because of confusion or complications with the investigation.”
Carraway traveled to Columbia Thursday to support a state Senate bill that she hopes will provide more clarity for others who find themselves in her shoes. The bill, filed by state Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, would give exclusive authority to the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate shootings of police or instances where police shoot another.
If that system had been in place last October, Carraway said she would have known where to go with her questions.
Almost all 46 S.C. sheriff’s departments already refer shooting investigations involving their officers to SLED, though they aren’t required to do so by law.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department has investigated its own shootings since 2014, despite complaints those investigations are not independent. Richland Sheriff Leon Lott has said his department has the expertise to run its own investigations.
In October, Florence County Sheriff Kenny Boone asked the Richland Sheriff’s Department — not SLED – to investigate the shooting that killed Carraway’s husband and Florence County Sheriff’s Office investigator Farrah Turner.
Carraway and Turner died of wounds suffered after police attempted to serve a search warrant on a Florence residence, looking for evidence connected to an alleged sexual assault. Fred A. Hopkins Jr., a disabled Vietnam veteran and disbarred attorney, has been charged with murder in their slayings.
Malloy’s bill is similar to November 2017 recommendations by the S.C. Commission of Prosecution Coordination. That group suggested the creation of a new, specialized unit within the state attorney general’s office to investigate shootings involving police.
Malloy’s proposal passed a Senate Judiciary Committee panel Tuesday, leaving it one step away from a vote on the Senate floor.
