SC already has more officer involved shootings than last year. These counties have had the most

It was a balmy Thursday at the end of January when Laurens County deputies attempting to serve warrants on a Gray Court man were drawn into a shootout that ultimately required a K-9 to get the man out of a shed.

No one was shot but it marked the first time law enforcement officers fired their weapons at suspects this year.

By October, officers had surpassed the number of shootings from 2022. So far this year, there have been 36 shootings, the most recent Thursday when 27-year-old Corporal Lucas Watts of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office was shot during a traffic stop. The driver was shot as well.

In 2022, officers fired their weapons at suspects 32 times, a marked decrease from 2021 with 40 incidents and before that in 2020, 49.

Four more shootings have taken place since the 2022 mark was surpassed.

The shootings on Thursday afternoon began when Watts pulled over someone driving on Highway 11. The driver initially stopped but then sped away. Deputies pursued. During the pursuit, the driver fired at deputies, hitting Watts, who had been a deputy for six years, three and a half with Oconee and two and a half with Anderson County.

The driver continued on and was later located on Black Bass Road near Fair Play. Deputies shot him, Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw said. Watts and the suspect were taken to Prisma Health Greenvillle Memorial Medical Center.

Watts was in critical but stable condition Friday, Crenshaw said. A fundraiser has been set up through Serve and Connect. It says Watts and his wife, Haley, had their first child in September.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting instead of SLED because someone at SLED is related to one of the people involved, Lt. Ryan Flood of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said.

Flood said warrants have been issued against Gregory Wayne Maxwell, 50, alleging five counts of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Maxwell is in custody at the hospital after sustaining at least one gunshot wound .

It was the third shooting this month, the second involving a traffic stop.

On Nov. 7, Greenville County deputies working with the United States Department of Homeland Security on a narcotics investigation found a suspect on Carter Street in Greenville County. The suspect died from multiple gunshot wounds fired by a deputy, the coroner said.

In Beaufort on Nov. 4, deputies tried to pull over a man they knew had outstanding warrants. He fled. Officers pursued. After his car hit a tree, he and the officers exchanged gunfire. The suspect was shot and died.

Early in the morning Oct. 29, Aiken County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call that someone was firing a weapon in a neighborhood. They became involved in a shootout with the suspect, who was killed. Officers were not injured.

The numbers so far this year tell a fuller story.

The State Law Enforcement Division has investigated 32 of the incidents. Two involved SLED officers and one Richland County, which does not bring in SLED to investigate. SLED is not required by law to look into shootings involving officers and is only brought in when requested by the agency involved for an independent review.

Richland County is the only one that does not ask for SLED review.

SLED has 20 still under investigation.

No officers have been killed, but 12 were wounded. K9 Rico of SLED was shot and killed in a Sept. 28 incident involving SLED and the Dorchester County SWAT team searching for a suspect who shot a Charleston County Sheriff’s deputy and a citizen the day before. Rico was shot attempting to neutralize the suspect, who then went outside, pointed a gun at officers and was shot and killed. The Charleston officer and citizen survived.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office was asked to investigate since SLED was involved.

In all, 17 suspects died, six were wounded. Most involved an exchange of gunfire.

Spartanburg and Aiken County have recorded the most incidents with four each. One of the Aiken incidents involved a traffic stop. In another, around 2 a.m. an Aiken Department of Public Safety officer was at a gas station when a man rammed his patrol vehicle. The man crawled out of his disabled vehicle and chased the officer, whose car was also disabled, with a knife. Other officers shot the pursuer, who survived and was charged.

In Spartanburg, two incidents involved officers shot at as they attempted to serve warrants and another resulted from a man who had stabbed a woman at the scene coming at deputies with a knife.

In the Midlands, Lexington County deputies responded to an early-morning home invasion call in September, during which they found a woman dead and a child still alive. A deputy was shot, but survived, and the suspect drove away.

Officers pursued and after an exchange of gunfire, the suspect died.

The other involved a standoff in West Columbia in June when the suspect was shot and killed.

In July, Columbia Police Department officers responded to a 911 call about a man with a gun. They exchanged gunfire with the man, who was struck as were two officers. They all survived.

In all, 20 of South Carolina’s 46 counties experienced shootings as did the city of Greenville and the Highway Patrol. Two troopers survived being shot during traffic stops and one suspect died.

The counties sheriff’s offices that have had shootings so far in 2023 are:

• Greenville 2
  
  
• Laurens 2
  
  
• Lexington 2
  
  
• Dillon 2
  
  
• Beaufort 1
  
  
• Cherokee 1
  
  
• Berkeley 1
  
  
• Anderson 1
  
  
• Orangeburg 1
  
  
• Dorchester 1
  
  
• McCormick 1
  
  
• Lee 1
  
  
• Greenwood 1
  
  
• Charleston 1
  
  
• Jasper 1
  
  

In addition, Greenville Police, Columbia Police and Horry County Police had one each.

This story was originally published November 18, 2023 at 6:00 AM.