By Jeffrey Collins
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A man who took a store clerk hostage during a robbery in South Carolina has been shot to death by officers, authorities said.
Jasper County deputy Dan Morgan suffered a minor foot injury during the shootout about 8 a.m. in Hardeeville, and the hostage may have twisted her ankle running from the Dollar General, Hardeeville spokesman Juan Singleton said.
Officers arrived at the store just as the robbery took place because guests at a motel across U.S. Highway 17 called 911 when they saw a masked man in the parking lot walking toward the store, Singleton said.
“The officers were there very quickly,” Singleton said.
Investigators are still trying to figure out how many shots were fired, how Morgan was hurt and which officers fired their weapons, Singleton said. The State Law Enforcement Division has been called in to investigate the suspect’s death.
The suspect died a short time after the shooting at the hospital, Jasper County Coroner Martin Sauls said.
His name has not been released. “I’m still working on who he is,” Sauls said.
The races of the suspect and officer haven’t been released.
Hardeeville has about 4,300 people and is about 120 miles south of Columbia. Singleton said Jasper County deputies also responded to the store because of the danger as the suspect took a hostage.
It was the second officer-involved shooting in nine hours in South Carolina. A North Myrtle Beach officer was shot in the foot late Sunday night by a man who came out from inside a home as police spoke to a mother and daughter during a domestic disturbance. The man was the woman’s father and was arrested uninjured a short time later, North Myrtle Beach spokesman Pat Dowling said.
The man’s name and the races of the people involved in that shooting have not been released.
The Hardeeville shooting was the 20th shooting involving a police officer in South Carolina this year. There were 48 in 2015, SLED said.
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