South Carolina cop charged with murder for shooting death of unarmed black man
ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (AP) — A white man who was the police chief in a small South Carolina town was charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man nearly four years ago.
ORANGEBURG, South Carolina (AP) — A white man who was the police chief in a small South Carolina town was charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man nearly four years ago.
The indictment of Richard Combs was released Thursday, a day after New York grand jury refused to indict a white officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man. And came more than a week after a grand jury similarly refused to indict a white officer in the death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.
Combs’ lawyer accused prosecutors of taking advantage of national outrage toward police to get the murder indictment.
“He’s trying to make it racial because his timing is perfect,” Combs’ attorney John O’Leary said. “He’s got all the national issues going on, so they want to drag him (Combs) in and say, look what a great community we are here, because we’re going to put a police officer who was doing his job in jail for 30 years. That’s wrong. That’s completely wrong.”
Prosecutor David Pascoe said he told Combs’ lawyers a year ago that he would pursue a murder charge if a judge rejected a self-defense claim, which happened last month.
The indictment is one of three for white officers in the shootings of black men this year in South Carolina, which has a dark and painful past of civil rights unrest and violence.
The shooting happened in May 2011 when Bernard Bailey came to Town Hall, which shares a building with the police department, to argue about a broken-taillight ticket his daughter had received a few days earlier.
Bailey’s daughter called her father on the day she received the ticket, and Bailey and the chief got into an argument, said Bailey family attorney Carl B. Grant.
Combs took out an obstruction warrant against Bailey, and when he showed up at Town Hall, the chief tried to arrest Bailey.
Prosecutors said Bailey marched back to his truck, and Combs tried to get inside to turn off the ignition. The two briefly fought, and Combs shot Bailey, 54, twice in the chest.
Combs said he was tangled in Bailey’s steering wheel and feared for his life if Bailey drove away.
State investigators began reviewing the shooting in March 2013 after a U.S. Justice Department investigation determined Combs did not violate Bailey’s civil rights.
In August, Bailey’s family reached a $400,000 wrongful death settlement with Eutawville, which has about 300 residents.
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Associated Press reporters Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, Bruce Smith in Eutawville and Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.
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