Sheriff explains why deputy shot suspect Saturday | Greenville News

GREENVILLE — A man was fatally shot by a deputy after a disturbance in a West Greenville neighborhood.

The man, whose name has not been released by authorities, was shot by a Greenville County sheriff's deputy on June 15 and died at the scene at a home in West Greenville.

A 911 call came in around 7:40 p.m. reporting an argument and shots fired outside a home on Arch Street in Greenville, near White Horse Road. When deputies arrived, Greenville County Sheriff Hobart Lewis said deputies found a man outside the house shooting at people with a rifle.

At one point, Lewis said in a video posted to Facebook after the shooting, the man turned toward deputies with the rifle and a deputy fired at them.

“(The deputies) obviously dared him to drop the gun, drop the gun and do those things, but then had to shoot the suspect,” Lewis said.

No deputies were injured in the shooting, according to a news release from the sheriff's office. The name of the deputy who fired the shots was not immediately available June 16.

“Upon arriving on scene, officers knew there was a possibility that someone was armed,” Lewis said.

This is the fourth deputy-involved shooting for the Greenville County Sheriff's Office this year, one of the state's largest law enforcement agencies that has historically led South Carolina in terms of number of police-involved shootings in recent years. Three of this year's shootings have been fatal.

Last year, the sheriff's office had three deputy-involved shootings, two of which were fatal, according to a Post and Courier database of law enforcement shootings.

In an interview with the Post and Courier earlier this year, Lewis attributed the statistic to increases in drug use and mental disorders.

“I just think people's mentality has changed. And I think drugs are more prevalent,” Lewis said. “I think the drugs people use today are very different from those of 20 years ago, in terms of the psychosis that results.”